a new beginning -- and a trainer! - Page 2

brent · #41 July 19th, 2005, 08:27 AM

Yeah, I want to see skinny James too!

Marco_ukmus · #42 July 19th, 2005, 09:11 AM

Hey James! Excellent news my friend! So sounds like its all going very well. Having just started working with a trainer, I know now what a difference it makes and how important it is you get along with the guy. As for super setting, that is something i have just started, never have done it before, but man, do i feel it like never before...! Mind you i think drop sets are worse... just started doing those too.

Ok, so your looking more lean and muscled, so yes, like growing muscles said, let's see some pics...

Again, excellent progress.... keep growing...

Marc

davesplitter · #43 July 23rd, 2005, 11:25 PM

I am glad you are making progress! I think you can be a thick monster, and still be lean---if you want to. I think it's cool you're going for it.

Does your trainer have a %BF limit he wants you to stay below? Or do you even look at it that way?

massingUP · #44 January 9th, 2006, 08:05 PM

Hey guys,

I know I've been absent for this thread for a while, but I'm still working away at things with my trainer -- making slow progress here and there. A bit of delt here, a bit of ab there.

At any rate, I don't have a lot of time for one of my overly-long posts, but just thought I'd share an encouraging story that caught me by surprise tonight.

I was working biceps with my trainer, doing some seated barbell curls, when a guy I've seen around the gym for the last year started working on the machine next to us. He's a nice guy, good shape (not huge but nicely muscled and tight) -- we've said hey to each other a few times but that's about it.

So tonight he watches me for a minute and then comments to my trainer: "I have to say, he'd take the prize for the most improvement in the last year. Really great work. Well done."

So of course, I was rather taken aback, but finished my set and then said thanks, and he reiterated his comment -- said that he thinks I've made some really excellent progress, that I look tighter, leaner, more muscular, etc. And when I told him I'm actually weighing less than I did a year ago, he laughed and said "Isn't that always the way?"

Anyway, it was a really nice thing to hear -- particularly when I was feeling like I haven't been making a lot of progress lately. So it just goes to show -- even when YOU feel like you might not be making the progress you want, others can still notice the progress you are making.

Anyway, just a little story that brightened my day.

- James

glammaman2000 · #45 January 9th, 2006, 08:17 PM

You've earned it!

brent · #46 January 9th, 2006, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glammaman2000

You've earned it!

Congratulations James! You put in a LOT of work at the gym, and deserve positive comments like that.

hulkmuscle · #47 January 9th, 2006, 09:27 PM

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy either. You should feel like a million bucks. Keep up the good work!

CDNmuscle · #48 January 10th, 2006, 01:57 PM

I second that! Looking good bro. I should have recognized those legs on the treadmill earlier.

Wishing you lots of growth in the new year!

massingUP · #49 January 10th, 2006, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDNmuscle

I second that! Looking good bro. I should have recognized those legs on the treadmill earlier.

Wishing you lots of growth in the new year!

Heh heh... I'm going to have to be more careful about what I say on this board, now that I know one of the guys from my gym is POSTING HERE. *chuckle*

Seriously though, thanks all of you for your kind words, and particularly CDNmuscle. CDN is one of those guys who provides some great inspiration in the gym, and he's been a long-time chat-buddy encouraging me in my gym project. And now that I'm back in Toronto, I get the pleasure of running into him in the gym from time to time. And while I've been out of town, he's put on 50+# and turned into a mass-monster on the Toronto scene.

I hope, one day, to gain some of his kinda size...

And in the meantime, I'll keep doing the slowly but surely thing. It might not deliver instant growth, but it keeps me sane...

-- J.

CDNmuscle · #50 January 11th, 2006, 04:12 PM

Dang it's a love in!.

Don't worry I only visit your gym every few months.

Some weekend when I'm in town we should do coffee and go do a workout and show those str8 guys that we ain't shy of heavy weights.

Good Luck with the trainer...be a big sponge.

Chat soon J.

Cdn

muscle_mastah · #51 January 11th, 2006, 07:54 PM

With enough of us, we could make it crowd.

massingUP · #52 January 13th, 2006, 04:02 PM

Hey all,

Well after the flurry of posts here recently, I figured I'd better update the training part of this thread.

As you can tell from the posts above, I'm still working with my trainer -- although I'm currently starting to think about cutting back on that. He's excellent, and I always get a great workout with him, but the $$ are starting to add up and so I may try to cut back to once a week, rather than my current luxury of twice a week.

At any rate, we've been using a couple of techniques lately, and at the moment we're combining both of them to get some real variety into the routine.

The first technique is what C. calls "Continuous tension". If I were doing a set of flat bench, I'd stack it up to a weight where I could do 12 reps comfortably: I'd do those twelve reps, then wait 20 seconds and do as many more reps as I could to failure -- and then I'd wait another 20 seconds and once again do as many reps as I could to failure. That whole triple-set is ONE complete set. And I will do three of those complete sets for my flat bench. Then I'll move on to do the same with incline... It makes for some INCREDIBLE pumps and is really intense -- very draining.

The other technique we've been using is just some traditional heavy lifting -- big compound exercises (squats, benchpress, full deadlifts, military presses, etc.) for 5 sets of 5 reps each. I don't get a whole lot of pump on these, but it feels great and I really benefit from a spotter who can push me and make me feel confident with the bigger weights. (New personal best this week on leg press -- 9 plates each side!! Though truth be told, it was only for 3 unassisted reps. Still, it was fun to do...)

At any rate, the current plan is that I spend one week doing "continuous tension" workouts and the next week doing my heavy routine. That kind of alternating schedule is certainly keeping the muscles guessing, and I'm in no danger of getting bored.

On the other side of things, trainer did an analysis of my diet and decided that while my protein and fat counts are pretty good, my carbs are too low for me to gain much muscle. Which would explain why I've been getting leaner and tighter but not a lot BIGGER. So I've been baking up a whole whack of sweet potatoes, eating more rice and making lots of tasty tortillas... And somehow I seem to have become addicted to vinegar-based coleslaw - strange but true.

At any rate, that's where I'm at these days in terms of training. Here's hoping it generates some good mass in the next year...

-- J.