Legs/Abs

I used to think my workouts were hard and intense until now.  When I was doing leg press's my legs quads were so pumped that when I put my feet in the position to go it was an uncomfortable feeling that I've never experienced before.   After trashing legs and abs yesterday my legs and abs are both hurting like I've never trained them before.  My chest is still a little sore from Mondays workout too.  This is only day 5 on the new diet and I'm already seeing changes.   I'm getting the best contractions and pumps and I think it's due to proper nutrition.  Today was my off day from weights so in between clients I have been getting plenty of rest.  My supplements are supposed to come in tomorrow afternoon so I'm definitely psyched to start taking them.  I'll be using Hany Rambod's Evogen Nutrition supplement stack.  E.V.P, Cell K.E.M. and GlycoJect.  Check them out at evogennutrition.com . I'll let everyone know how they are working for me by next week once I get to use them for a few workouts.

"A year from now you may wish you had started today." - Karen Lamb

First workouts on the new program…

Paul Reitz - NYC Winter 2009

So after taking Saturday and Sunday off I was pretty excited to get in there today and get started on the training segment of my program.  I started the diet on Saturday.  When I spoke with Hany on Friday he told me that my split that I had just started last week was a good one for me so we are keeping it for the time being.  If you didn't read the post of my new split it's

• Monday - Chest
• Tues - Quads
• Wed - OFF
• Thursday - Shoulders
• Friday - Back
• Saturday - Arms

I got the sickest pump in my chest today and that is still with zero supplements.  Once my supplements get here any day now I'll be starting right away.  Over the weekend I went out with some friends for the final time and I have to say I really didn't have a good time because my total attention is on my program.  I've never been so focused in my life and I know it's going to pay off in more ways than one.  My 4 month hibernation has begun and I hope you guys enjoy my whole process as I'll still be filming videos and taking progress pictures every couple weeks.  My weight is currently 218lb on an empty stomach.  Once I upload the first progress pictures I'll put all of my updated stats and measurements.

Back/Bicep

Yesterday Ron and I headed over to the NAC (Nashville Athletic Club)  to meet up with one of my previous clients Andy for a back workout.  I got to use some machines that I hadn't used in a while.  It's definitely my new favorite gym in Nashville by far.  It has EVERYTHING and I managed to walk out of there with a free week pass so I'll be checking it out again very soon    I would join because it's very inexpensive but I have my membership still for all of the Y's and they are more convenient.  Directly after our workout Ron and I made a pit stop into McDonald's and I got 2 big macs and a double cheese burger.  Since Wednesday I've been taking a break from my normal food since I'm about to start my new program.  Suzanne has made 3 different recipes from the magazine Clean Eating so I'll be posting some new recipes up soon.  Lamb Pita's,Chicken Quesidilla's, and a Pasta Dish.  All very healthy alternatives to the normal dishes but I'm officially over food I'm ready to get back on a scheduled plan.  I spoke with Hany last night and received my program so I'm starting the diet today.  Everything is totally different then what I've been doing and I'm excited to see how my body will respond.  I CAN'T WAIT TO GET STARTED WITH EVERYTHING!

1. Wide Grip machine pulldowns - 4x10-12
2. Standing DB Row - 3x12
3. underhand grip hammer strength pulldowns - 4x10-12
4. seated wide grip cable row superset standing rope pulldowns - 3x12
5. low handle hammer strength rows - 3x12 one arm at a time
6. standing db hammer curls - 3x10-12
7. standing cambered bar preacher curls - 4x15 one drop set on last set (worked on negatives)

Quads/Calves/Abs

1. Squats - 95lb x 12, 135lb x 12, 225lb x 10, 275lb x 8, 315lb x6, 315lb x 4 then drop to 225lb for 6 another drop 135lb for 15
2. leg press - 4x10-12 worked up to last set 8 plates each side
3. smith machine front squats - 4x10
4. leg ext - 3x12
5. crunches superset seated calve raise - 4x15-20

Chest/Bicep

1. Incline DB Press - 4x8-12
2. Incline Barbell Press - 4x8-12
3. Flat DB press - 4x10-12 one drop set on last set
4. standing Cable flys - 4x12-15
5. standing db curls - 3x12

I'll be either filming shoulders/tri's on thursday or back/hamstrings when I'm in VA on friday.

Thursday’s Shoulder workout + Friday’s Arm workout

Tarrice Love - NYC

Thursday Ron and I headed over to Greenhill's to hit the shoulder routine I watched a video of on musculardevelopment.com.  It was the most recent Victor Martinez workout which had some new stuff that I was excited to try out.

1. Reverse pec dec + reverse high cable flys - 4x12
2. standing db laterals + standing db laterals partials (top half of rep) - 4x12
3. seated db press - 4x10
4. reverse db hammer press + bus drivers + front raises - 4x10
5. ab machine crunches - 4x20
6. stepmill - 15 minutes hit

Bus drivers - hold a plate directly in front of you (i used a 25lb) have a slight bend in the elbows to keep pressure off and turn from right to left is 1 rep. I'd never tried these until today and they are PAINFUL! I'll definitely be incorporating these in weekly.

Friday's arm workout was from a video I watched on flexonline.com of Phil Heath (one of my favorite pro's).

1. cambered bar 21's - 4 sets
2. seated concentration curls - 4x12
3. standing db hammer curls - 4x10
4. preacher curls - 4x10-12
5. straight bar pressdowns - 4x12
6. incline skull crushers + close press - 4x10-12
7. dips - 3xfailure

For cardio later on in the afternoon I did 8 rounds of 20 second uphill sprints then jump rope and berpies with pushups.  I'll be doing a lot more high intensity cardio now.  I just got very bored with doing the low intensity all the time.  The feeling that high intensity cardio gives you is amazing.  Yesterday was a rude awakening of how out of shape my heart and lungs had gotten from doing low intensity all the time.  It's such a different condition you get your body into when you can get good at high intensity.  I look forward to reaping the benefits of being in top cardio shape again.  This upcoming week I'll be changing up my split as well.  All of these changes will throw my body into a shock and keep the progress rolling.  Monday I'll be filming my chest workout.  And later on in the week I'll be filming some other stuff too.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Tonight I'll be watching the UFC fights and relaxing at home.  I'm pulling for Silva and Griffin.

Suzanne, Randy (one of my clients),Terrie - 8/26 Seppe's B-Day Party

"Interval Training.  Over the past few years, it has become clear that interval training is superior to steady-state cardio for fat loss.  the reason interval training is superior is because interval training burns more calories "post-exercise".  All the epinephrine, norepinephrine and growth hormone that spikes during high-intensity exercise results in an after-burn effect that burns more calories during the recovery period.  Catecholamines, especially epinephrine, have been shown to enhance fat mobilization release from both subcutaneous and intramuscular fat stores." - Oct. 2011 Muscular Development

Just cardio today…

My day got kicked off with 30 minutes of low intensity cardio on the stair climber on level 4.0.  Shortly after Ron came over to the house and ran around with me for a couple of errands I had to get done.  One being getting my car washed again(Just did it on Saturday) because last night I apparently pissed some birds off because there were about 10 different spots where they had shit all over the place lol.  Later on I went back to the gym and did 30 minutes of stepmill. The first 15 minutes was low intensity on level 55 then the second 15 minutes was all intervals.  3 minutes level 90 followed by 2 minutes recovery on 50.  Tomorrow is shoulder day and I've got a good one lined up for us.  Here is the most recent picture of my sister and the new born Leah along with my nephew Dylan.  I can't wait to see them over labor day weekend as I'll be going up to VA for a long weekend!

Dylan,Megan,Leah

Back/Calves/Cardio

Today it has been difficult to move around after yesterdays intense back workout.  Ron joined again along with NPC competitor Will Rudolf.  He just recently won his class at a show in Knoxville and placed 2nd at his most recent showing at the NPC TN States.  After taking last week off from no deadlifts because I had tweaked my back on that first set of pullups we kicked the workout off with them.  I went more for reps today instead of doing singles.

1. deadlifts - 135lb - 12, 225lb - 10, 315lb 10, 405lb - 10, 405lb - 10, 315lb - 20
2. reverse grip pulldowns - 4x10-12
3. overhand barbell row - 4x10
4. standing wide grip pulldowns - 4x12 superset standing calve raise - 4x12
5. seated cable row + leg press calve machine + standing high rope row - 3x12-20

later on at about 7:30pm I went back to the gym to do my cardio.  When I first got there all the stepmills were taken so I started on the stair climber for 11 minutes doing 2 minutes high 1 minute low until a stepmill was free.  Then I did 20 minutes on the stepmill and I did 2-5 minutes of high followed by 1 minute recovery.  I wanted to push myself on the high intensity to see how far out of shape I'd gotten since I used to do high all the time.  I was pleasantly surprised that my heart and lung condition were still pretty good.

Ron offered yesterday that he will start filming our workouts so now I won't have to wait till the weekends and train muscle groups when they are not fully recovered.  I planned on filming chest this Friday or Saturday but I'm waiting till Monday since that's when I would normally hit it again.  I'll also be filming descriptive videos since I've been getting questions on how to execute particular exercises.

Chest/Abs/Cardio

Rick Day

My training partner Ron and I have linked up the past couple of workouts and it's been great having the extra push from someone especially on chest day.   We implemented forced reps,partials,negatives all in today's workout.  After taking Saturday and Sunday off to rest and recover I felt like a totally different person in the gym today.  I was dragging ass by the end of the week last week so the 2 days off of doing nothing did the trick.

1. Incline DB Press - 2 warm up sets - 4x8-10
2. Flat Hammer press - 4x10
3. Incline DB Fly - 4x12
4. Flat bench cable fly - 3x12
5. fst-7 - 2 sets of dips (we planned on doing the full 7 sets of dips but by that point of the workout I couldn't move my own bodyweight so we did 5 sets of push ups)
6. seated cable crunches superset decline bench sit ups - 3x15 and 3x20
7. elliptical level 5 - 30 minutes