Bulking - Week 3 - Dost thou even heave?

So get this, there's this awful place I know. Let me give you a mental picture. The clanging of metal bars, plates, and pulleys; while grunts of agony fill the air, thick with the musk of labourious sweat. In the distance, you see a man in red gleefully relaying absurd orders to a huddled pack of suffering husks of human flesh sprawled out on the floor. It ain't hell. They call it a gym... and people pay to go here! What would drive a person to such utter insanity? Well there's lots of reasons, actually. It's your decision whether or not it's worth it. Do you want to feel well? Energetic? Healthy? Do you want to look your best? Do you want to push the limits of what your body can do for you? Then you're going to have to work for it! Or just pump some 'roids and screw the healthy part. Whatever. Going to the gym may not be for everybody, but make no mistake, humans weren't built for the sedentary lifestyle so many live today.

"No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable"

That's a quote from Socrates, who I assume could easily bench press twice his own bodyweight and hurl a discuss clear across a coliseum. Now, pretending this includes women, and that there wasn't rampant and creepy gay man-boy-love during Socrates' era, I think it's a pretty cool quote. Nowadays life isn't quite so physically demanding, and you're a lot less likely to be drafted into military service, but even still, physical training is an important part of being human, especially with the ease we can fall into an inactive lifestyle. Even just 15-30 minutes of moderate exercise per day does wonders for your heart, your metabolism, your body, and even your mind. You don't have to do what I'm going to show you here, but you should do something active to get that blood pumping. Every day, if possible.

Lifting Big
So for my purposes, I've been trying to increase in size and strength as much as possible. If you want to get big and lift more, you've gotta lift big. If you're training for endurance and stamina, you lift less weight with more repetitions. This month though, I don't have time for any of that namby-pamby 15+ rep baloney. I scoured a few forums for interesting workouts and opinions, and I came upon this. I'm not a stranger to the gym, but this was a different style of workout for me. The idea is to do a mid range set of lifts (about 10 repetitions) to exhaust the muscles, then give your body only enough time to do about 3 repetitions each set following, until you've completed about 30 repetitions. This high level of weight fatigues the muscles, which in turn leads them to repair larger and stronger. It's definitely a technique more suited to bulking and bodybuilding, and just the kind of routine I was looking for. So I've been working with the routine I linked you and tweaking it as I've felt necessary through the month. Tweaking is important!

Just like with nutrition, or really anything, every body is different. The most important part of any routine, is finding one that works for you. That means everything from being safe, working with your schedule, and finding something you can actually stand doing. Whether you actually enjoy it or not. This is the final routine I've ended up with, along with my starting lift weight (in lbs at 10ish rep exhaustion):

A:
Back Squats - 245*
Chin-ups (shoulder width grip) - 163-16 assist
Bench press - 125
Seated rows (wide grip, pull bar to pecs) - 50
Leg curls - 130
Concentration curls (alternate between arms with minimal rest) - 25
Rope pressdowns - 50*
Standing calf raises (w/ smith machine and stepping block) - 140*
Wide grip upright rows (barbell or cable) - 70

B:
Deadlifts - 160*
Pull-ups (wide grip) - 163-34 Assist
Dips - 163-16 Assist
Chest-supported rows (w/machine) - 80
Leg extensions - 190
Alternating Incline dumbbell curls - 22.5
Overhead extensions - 50
Seated calf raises - 80
Side lateral raises - 17.5

Pimp My Workout
All the lifts in red have changed from the original workout, and the asterisks note that I've either modified the lift or the technique midway through the month in a way that'll give a skewed result for my final lift weight. Now that you have that data, let me give you a few examples of the changes I made to my workout, why, and why it's important you think about these if you're starting your own routine. Now at the top of the list, you can see I've changed to back squats. These were originally front squats, but as I increased in weight, I found the movement really hard on my wrists, so I modified it to something more comfortable. Next, we have the bench press, which in the original was a 'slight incline'. Well, A) The only incline bench was more than slight, and B) it was almost allllways in use, so I opted for a plain Jane bench instead. You also want to keep tabs on your technique, I found that I wasn't getting the full range of motion with my rope pressdown initially, which threw my starting weight out of whack.

Full range of motion is important, which is to say, your particular muscle(s) on that lift should be completely extended according to proper technique (I suggest searching here for technique), or you're just lifting more while robbing yourself of the real strength gains. It can be tempting to shorten range for a bigger lift, but just don't do it! Back to the lifts; I got a little bit creative with my standing calf raises. My gym doesn't have the specific machine, and I found that simply gripping the dumbbells in the required weight range was too difficult to properly work my calves, so I tried something different by loading the smith machine across my shoulders/back and elevating my heels off of a stepping block. It's a great substitute if you don't have a dedicated calf raise machine. Deadlifts were probably the most important change I made. I was originally attempting romanian deadlifts, which are a more limited movement, and allows for more weight BUT despite being able to lift it, it was really uncomfortable to hold, and more urgently, I was struggling to keep a rigid back and shoulders, so I made a call to switch to a plain old deadlift with a lower weight range, and it's much more comfortable and safe. Not to say that the lift is bad, it just wasn't right for me at such a low range of repetition. So watch that form and always listen to your body! That's the number one piece of advice I can give you for any physical fitness endeavor!

More Than Hard Work
Speaking of listening to that body, there are other changes I made throughout my workouts, most important being the frequency. At the start of my challenge a workout week would consist of workout A for day 1, a 'rest' day, workout 'B', another rest day, and repeat. Firstly, these are full body workouts, and the first few cycles were actually pretty brutal. I was sore pretty much non-stop for the first week; and soreness is okay! It means you're working the muscles and are due for some wicked strength gains. Fatigue is another thing. If you're having more difficulty completing a workout because your muscles are fatigued, that's usually a good sign you need to take it easier. Rest is just as important as the workout. Inflammation aside, muscles don't grow in the gym, they grow when you're resting. So make sure you're getting enough sleep, and not overworking the muscles. That said, my so-called 'rest' days still involved some high intensity cardio work. Even though I wasn't doing any heavy lifting, I was still getting my sweat on and keeping those muscles from getting lazy for a good 15-30 minutes on my off days. It's not mandatory, but it's a good idea to do at least some level of activity; even on your resting days. As I carried on this pattern, by the end of week 2 I was noticing my body becoming less and less sore after the workouts. My body was telling me it was okay to get a little extra time in the gym, so my routine became: A day, B day, rest day, repeat. I was getting the soreness again, and now, as I'm nearing the end of the challenge, it's already starting to fade. The other solution, which I'll save for next month: change the lifts and the repetition range you're working with. Your body is smart, and it'll adapt to whatever you can throw at it. So the more variety you can mix in, the harder you'll be working it, and the more gains you'll see!

Also, DON'T forget proper warm ups and stretching, unless you really want that hernia or pulled muscle you've been eyeing up. I start every workout with running, biking, rowing; whatever gets my heart pumping and my sweat pouring, then I move on to dynamic stretches, which are really helpful before a bout of heavy lifting. After I'm done my workout I'll do static stretches: akin to and including what you might see in a yoga class. Yoga is a great example of the kind of stretching you should be doing after a workout. Some myofascial release with things like lacrosse balls, foam rollers, and medicine balls are always a good idea to get rid of some built up tension as well. Just as a point of reference, a workout for me is between 1 and 1.5 hours, while I generally try to keep my pre-warmup and post-stretches at about 15 minutes each. To be totally honest, I could be doing more of these, and if you have the time, I'd definitely advise it.

I'm (Not) Going to Pump You Up
For those of you that aren't looking to get big, you might want to look at some lifts with a higher range of repetition. There's no need to be afraid of weights (I'm looking at you, ladies). Adding some weight to your workout isn't going to make you into a hulking mass of muscle (If that's your thing, go hard!). Just lift safe, lift smart, and you'll see strength gains and better definition regardless of the size you're going for. You can even modify certain lifts in your workout to sculpt and increase size where you see fit (don't get any funny ideas, dudes).

That's it for now. I've been slacking with the updates, and I still need to do a little write-up on supplements before my final results and thoughts, but keep an eye out on Monday/Tuesday to see how I did!