inactive REST duty

We are taking a week of rest from the gym. No injuries, just need to do that every now and then. One step backward - several steps forward.

Here is the Zacheroo I spoke of a few times . He left us to go back to school in Indiana. Hey Zach, we missed you the other night! Keep Lifting! I want to see you in the racing pool in London in 2012!

I am starting to feel FRENZIED!!! The 3rd annul First State Power Frenzy is now 4 weeks away. This one is definitely going to be a FRENZY! I promise you that! It is being held at The Training Center in New Castle, DE. You can find an entry on http://www.apa-wpa.com/, or e-mail me for details. All signs indicate that there will be some big lifts at this event, and lots of FUN...one is not even allowed to compete at my meets without having FUN! If you are a sourpuss - stay home. And if you can't tolerate fair judging - stay home. My judges, if not certified -and several are - including myself, are at least active competitive powerlifters and are very competent in judging fairly and correctly.

Congratulations to Lori Steele for winning her class at The North Americans last night. She is a little fireball, for sure!

I am hanging right around 172'ish - I gave up the Little Debbie cakes this time around. I am substituting Jello Pudding Snacks and frozen coconut fruit bars... I've lost my "sweet" tooth, and the Debbie Cakes are just too sweet for me any more. I have to figure away to add more calories into my diet without noticing, as eating is once again become a chore...BIG is the word this time.


My plan is to do a smaller show sometime early next year, and then onto the Masters.

And for certain people who actually have the balls to tell me my "work ethic" as a bodybuilder isn't up to snuff - I scoff. You know who you are...and if you truly believe that, then, and I will put this politely, you are wrong. The proof is always in the pudding, as they say, (not Jello Pudding - hah!) and instead of elaborating on your obviously uneducated statements...I'll just show you with results in a few months down the road.

Medius Maximus

I finally have to admit - I'm on the BIG side now. I weighed in at 172.8 yesterday. I had a photoshoot last Friday afternoon. I keep looking at those pictures saying "Holy Moly - is that big broad me???!!!" I still have veins poking through in my biceps and striated shoulders and triceps...YIKES! No six pack in the ab department, but HECK! Those stay covered up for the most part anyway - who cares!!! Well, OK, I care... but it is only temporary. I have a 2 pack!

If I can maintain my upper body right where it is through to next year, I'll be happy. My legs, however...They are not small - but it always comes down to the friggin' shape, a uniquely shaped gam, and they need to be extra big to WOW. Speaking of shape -

I was watching the Olympic track and field games last night. They were showing clips of sprinter

Tyson Gay, and I thought to myself - That is one BIG butt! His gluteus medius is H_U_G_E!!!! Then I thought to myself - I am shaped just like him! That's the same butt I have! I don't know why I brought that up, except to say that I do need to find a way to shave some of that gluteus medius off. To me, it is disproportionately HUGE!!! Might be a good thing I cannot squat!

The Hammer Strength Leg Press does indeed keep the stress on my thighs rather than my glutes. I had this "wonderful" idea that GW and I should do pause reps with that machine the other night. My legs are still sore from that escapade - i can't wait to do them again! If you have never used that machine - it starts you in the down position, the initial push off is the hardest part. You have all of the weight stress upon you when your legs are extended. Why in the world it was not designed with a lever ?????

But a couple of sets of those paused suckers will be sure to bloat anybody's legs!

Last night I winged through my chest, delts and tris by myself...all alone. That is when I take the time to do all of the exercises that GW absolutely hates and won't do. I'm really out of practice jumping the dumbells up from my thighs to my chest - LOL...well, not really funny. I just about killed myself last night in the process!

I know I keep touching on this subject, however, At Large Nutrition - RESULTS... the stuff is really good stuff. I mix up a drink and sip it throughout my workout. Every time I use it I get such an incredible swollen feeling. Me likes!!!

Alright - one teaser from last Friday:

I will give younz another teaser - next time I have my picture taken I'll look a little different...but I'm not saying why just yet!!! GIGGLE :)

And FURTHER more....

Those that know me well know that I hate TYPOS - spelling and grammatical typos - I abhor them! So, my last post I reread after posting and caught it - the word FARTHER should be FURTHER! I used to excel in English and I was a proofreader for a couple of years. Couple that with SPELLCHECK and there should NEVER be any typos in my postings, right????!!!

This week was mostly high reps with medium weight. Wednesday Zach and I trained without GW. We both showed up in a sluggish state. Zach and I decided to go for lots of reps really fast, so we plugged on through the workout on high speed. My shoulders and triceps felt like they were going to split open and send muscle fibers and blood splattering everywhere. They were swolt to the MAX!!! I can't remember exactly what we did, and not sure it matters.

Tonight, back and biceps night - GW and I did lots of reps again. My muscles have been feeling very "depleted" lately. I'm surprised that they got so pumped and full of blood again.
I have been drinking the AtLargeNutrition Results, and I have a suspicion that the stuff is actually Good Stuff!

I did stop taking vitamin supplements several weeks ago, because of my sensitivities to certain supplements and my insomnia, I thougt it might be best to "dry out" for awhile. I could tell, however, when I went to the dentist the other day for a check-up and cleaning, that when my gums bled so heavily from just a typical scraping that I was in need of some serious vitamin replenishment. I started taking some again yesterday in small doses.


Here is a picture of me after our workout tonight.

I hadn't measured any of my bodyparts in God knows how long, but I measured my biceps for the heck of it this evening. They looked as if they have grown in the past few weeks, and, by cracky, they have!!! They are, officially, now for the first time, larger than my calves! Not good - they have always been the same size...now I have to bring the calves back up!
No, I am not going to state how big either measured. They are as big as they are.
I hate when people get caught up in measurements...however, they are pretty big! LOL!!! Heck, I weighed in at 171.2 at the gym tonight - I gained about 15 pounds in 4 weeks... YIKES!!!


Last Saturday I went to lunch with the "gals" at Kelly's Logan House in Wilmington, DE after the DE State bodybuilding pre-judging. Here we are- in order- figure competitor Nicole Fisher, Powerlifter Teri Mangini (front), bodybuilder Colleen Mahoney-Sgro, bodybuilder Justine Dohring, and ME(whetever I am) ...Colleen was on a diet for the Team U, but those other women, GAWDDD...can they EAT!!!

August 10, 2008

This week has been a good week - the best part about it was the 5 straight nights in a row of sleep! Unfortunately, my streak ended as last night I had to resort to "magical aid", but seriously - the last time I had that much sleep was probably back in April...that's a long miserable time!

Sleep is my FAVORITE DRUG! Without it, I fall apart.

CONGRATULATIONS to my friends Andy Sedar and Michelle Schanz. They both competed for the first time at the DE STATE Bodybuilding competition yesterday.

Andy placed first in the Men's Novice HWT and Overall

and 2nd in the Men's Open contest HWT and 1st in the Men's DE State HWT

Michelle placed first in several categories in figure!

They both looked INCREDIBLE!!!

Hopefully we will be seeing both of them up on the posing dais again! I am soooo happy for both of them! Many of us have followed Andy's journey through his thread on the animalpak.com forum. (see "McFly's Journey") I have had the opportunity to train with Andy, and know how damned hard he trains, and how he puts EVERYTHING into each rep.

Michelle- it is hard to believe she has never competed before. She has the "X" factor to do very well in figure if she pursues it farther.

Power Goddess is starting to come back around to the gym - she showed up unexpectedly Wednesday on chest, delts, tris night. I almost didn't bench because of some aggravation up around my right clavicle area, but I did...I did 230 x 7 and thought that was good considering everything...

the next set I got into a groove and did 230 x 10. OK - well where did THAT come from??? Because I certainly didn't feel like gangbusters. Third set I did another 230 x 10!!! They were all certainly passable in any powerlifting meet.

Zach trained with GW and I again. He's fun to train with. He let us in on the fact that he is actually an Olympic caliber swimmer who almost made it to the Olympic trials this year, but he hurt his back several months ago and that put a damper on everything. Wow...poor guy. I know what it's like to pull my back out a week prior to a powerlifting meet, and not be able to compete, but then there is going to be many power meets to choose from over the course of several months, so you just suck it up and move on. The Olympics only come up once every four years. Well, Zach - keep up the weight training and it will only make you that much stronger,better, and faster for next time you have the opportunity to go for it!

Friday for some Godforsaken reason I decided that we should deadlift. I went for 320 x 12, and then 370 x 6...my form looks good to any trained eye, however, it's not my usual form - sluggish is the best way I can describe it. I am still trying to catch up to myself from sleep deprivation, but I do have hope now! I have to mention that the air in the gym is HEAVY - lead iron bags of rocks HEAVY. The air conditioning is on, but the humidity is still incredibly high. Breathing is difficult. I don't usually sweat very much, but these days in the gym I sweat rivers... it is hard.

I was up to 166.8 this morning. I've been eating alot, eating cleanly - but alot. My body is soaking up food like a sponge. I am laying it all out this time - BIG is the key word... watch Kate grow!

Rest in Peace Isaac Hayes -

Posted August 04 2008

I am still not sleeping everynight, more like every other night or so. Sleep deprivation has drained SO MUCH 'joie de vivre' out of me. I miss my self.
I found this moniker on a forum the other day (forum.ANIMALPAK.com - yes, that's a plug).
I thought it so appropriate to my state of mind and physical being these days that I wanted to share it:

I am broken, battered, beaten down. I am tired and near defeat. But I will wage the fight one more day, and one more after that.

Keep on keepin' on....

It's been a whole entire week and I haven't benched, deadlifted or squatted! How long can that last????I've kept my reps high(er) for the most part and I'm into savoring the feeling of the whole groove of each rep... I got an incredible 'swole on' Wednesday evening. Maybe that was partly due to the AT LARGE NUTRITION RESULTS (another plug) GW and Zach did benches, but I opted for incline dumbells. I only went up to 100's - that was pure sapped of strength levels rather than wanting to keep the reps higher - honestly they weren't all that high at 5. Those are 90's in the picture. I kept the other two sets at 90's x 8. We all did decline db's for 3 sets and I forget what the third movement was....?

Shoulders we did one armed lateral raises. I like using a kettlebell for these. This is still one of my all time favorite exercises, and I can go all day doing these if you let me...We did upright row-pull in thingies...(technical term). Those should have been done on back/trap day rather than chest/delt day...and I think my traps are STILL feeling the wrath of those. Holy heck!
Triceps we did dumbell skull crushers and I forget what else...that's what happens when you wait 5 days to blog. I obviously do not keep an 'official' workout log, other than this blog.

Saturday was one of the most humid days of the year. The gym was void of enough oxygen to go around...breathing was rather difficult even before we commenced training. Once we began our breathing was quite labored to say the least. It must have been the combination lack of air and valium hangover ,(my current sleep aid) for me but I felt very close to puking during much of the workout. (just thought I'd share that lovely thought with you). We started with Reverse grip barbell rows. I need to hit that lower lat area as much as I can . I'm concentrating on bringing out the lowest part of my lats. I don't think my upper back is lacking as much as my mid-back area. Did 225 x 15, 275 x 6, 225 x 13. After those - one armed cable rows from the bottom cable. I haven't done those in years. I usually do cable rows from the top . The bottom is a much more difficult movement, at least for me - I love this movement. Stiff armed pulldowns next. GW did regular db shrugs. I did more of a lat movement, where you actually try to do a lat spread while holding the dumbells.
The real reason for that was that my traps were still in agony from Wednesday!
Biceps - I still don't enjoy doing biceps, but I actually think they have added a smidgeon of thickness to them as of the late. We did incline kettlebell curls, and regular hammer curls.

I'm not eating enough. It is hard to stuff my face when it is so hot out. I keep reaching for cold fruit and popsicles, not exactly foods to beef up with. I'm hanging around 163.

I want to give a great big shout to my friend Andy Sedar who will be competing in his first show this coming weekend - The Delaware State. I haven't seen " McFly" in about 5 weeks or so, but I hear he is looking "spot on". I know the man has the drive, determination, and the heart it takes to do well in bodybuilding. He is also trained by the incredible Big Al Fortney. I hope to be able to make it up to see Andy kick some glute up on stage this weekend. GO ANDY!!!