Reach for your dreams

As a family we have had a few ups and downs over the past few years. Sometimes it feels like we have more downs than ups. But with the support of good people there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you Charlotte xx

Over the years I have played the self guilt game. Denying myself things I want as punishment for not following through things I felt I should of achieved. A lot of these things I should have done, fit within that area of your persona that you find uncomfortable to do, through negative self imaginary. Unfortunately this is a self fulfilling prophecy, as you feel low for denying yourself something you enjoy for not following through on something you personally find difficult. It become hard to break out of the cycle.

So over the last year, with support of my family, I have changed my outlook on life. Seizing my dream and pushing hard to achieve what is important to me.

Surprisingly the upshot is those things that if I didn't do would cause me to punish myself, and deny my dreams are getting done as well. It is amazing what a positive self image can do to ones outlook and drive.

So my goal is to compete in a bodybuilding contest, I have worked hard on getting my diet right and taking my body back into some sort of shape.

But feel that I need some additional help to take my body to the next level. So I have invested in a personal trainer to help me push forward on my goal. We had our first session today and it was a great workout.

He recommended that I take some before shots and measurements, so here is a before shot of my back.

Old wives tales

My training has been going well recently. To keep the body growing, I've review my training routine, as I've had the same routine for over 10 weeks, and was we all know variety is the spice of muscle.

So in this new routine I tried dips. I haven't done dips for a number of years, primarily because I've had a weak shoulder. I cannot tell you how chuffed I was, when I attempted dips and found I could do very strict dips for more than one rep :)

But we all know pride becomes before a fall, and my fall came in the disguise of a torn tricep. I was gutted. Luckily I stopped before I did to much damage. But when I got home my wife was shocked at the sight of my injury. She could put her thumb in the dent caused by the rip.

I treated it with a penetrating pain and inflammation cream to try and bring down the swelling, and a ultrasonic gun to try and promote healing.

But it didn't seem to improve anything, in fact it started twinge whilst I was driving. A necessary evil with my job. So I got a bit concerned for my immediate future in the gym.

But my wife came to the rescue. She comes from a family that believes in all the old time remedies. Her aunt
still rubs her joints with olive oil to beat joint pain, and my wife spent much of her young life walking around in goose fat and brown paper to beat chest colds.

So some of them are a bit questionable. But she mentioned something her dad used to use, Witch Hazel.

So I thoroughly soak a cotton cloth in witch hazel, and wrapped it around my tricep, and slept with it on.

All I can say, is it is amazing, the tricep looks like the tear never happened and although it is still not 100% fixed it feels 100% better. So if you do have a muscle tear, give it a go.

Hair today...

So my physical development is coming on great. My only problem is that I have a slight problem seeing it... No it is not due to any physical of mental problem, but... Okay, I admit it a hairy one!

Yes, I am folliclely blessed ;).

I have clipped and shaved, but it's a bit like painting the forth road bridge (a never ending task). So the other night my wife offered to wax me. I pondered for a moment it really hurts when you pull a plaster off and you're hairy. Then again walking the day after you've done your legs is no picnic either. I was not going to let a little body hair get in the way of my goal.

We've all seen the scene in the 40 year virgin, but surely, he was just acting, wasn't he.

Well, no he wasn't!

The pain...

"It will get easier the more you do"

Foolishly, I believed her... It doesn't!

So now I have a left pec, which is sparsely haired and a trimmed right pec.

The benefit, is I can clearly see my level of definition and size, and it is better than I'd thought. But there has to be any easier, less painful way...

An Evening of Classical Entertainment

It is a very strange mix of personalities in our house. Being out female'd on a scale of 3 to 1, I'm not counting the dog, as he will side with anybody with the tastiest snack, or sweatiest feet :) Plus we had his balls removed, a surgery that I'm sure would effect any guy.

So tonight it was a very different evening, no gym, or relaxing watching the latest blockbuster, but and evening of culture and open air poetry.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how the mood goes, the weather was good, so the evening went ahead and as my dear wife was reading, all the family showed willing and went to offer moral support.

Poetry is a strange thing. I'm sure at school, I was taught that poems rhymed, or had a beat. But tonight, only a handful of the offerings offered me what I understood to be poems, the rest just seemed like very short stories. It probably that I'm just a heathen.

So my wife read two poems, one entitled "Why I won't win the lottery", which if I had previously heard might of put me off marriage, as I quite fancy winning the lottery.

The second was an interest thing, that she assured me was about her love for me, but how I'm liken to a 6 minute boiled egg is lost on my I uncultured brain.

Give me something with a plug on it, it need to get back to reality...

Pain and Injury

When I was younger, and began my interest in bodybuilding, I found I was prone to numerous injuries. Hurting my shoulder and the worst, the most painful, ripping my left lat. At the time I wasn't very sure why I was so prone to some very painful injuries, but looking back now I can see that a these were due to a combination of bad form and too much weight. It always looks good to load the bar, but if there is too much weight, your form will suffer and you can do yourself serious injury. Luckily, I have recovered from both of these injuries with no adverse affects.

Now I look at the form first, and concentrate on feeling the muscle work, rather than going for the large poundage. Result? I'm seeing good strong and balanced growth. And surprising I'm moving larger poundage than I would expect so early back into my training.

As for my recent injuries?

So far my only injury I've received since being back in the gym, is a ruptured capillary on my eye, nothing seriously thankfully.

Stay strong.

Motivation?

So there I was last night relaxing, lamenting over being a rest day from the gym, and my good lady wife came in waving a couple of sheets of paper at me...

'There you go...' as she proffered me the paperwork.

She had completed the entry form for the ukbff contest (http://www.ukbff.co.uk/events.html) for me. The competition was in October, giving me just over 3 months... Don't think so...

'Good motivation, to help you in the gym'

Thankfully she hadn't sent it. I've improved a lot from when I started bodybuilding again from earlier in the year, but I don't think I'm quite there yet.

Although next year ... Watch this space :)

10 weeks on

So I've been about 10 weeks since I started the blog. After initial strong growth, I seem to plateau for a number of weeks making no growth.

At this point I looked again at everything I was doing. I felt that I was working hard in the gym, in fact I was exhausted after each workout.

But after doing some reading around, it looked like I was not eating enough. So I reviewed my diet and yes I was under eating for my size. So I upped my meals and protein intake.

Since this review of diet, I have found that I've got a lot more energy, even whilst pushing myself harder.

So I've just measured myself again and I'm pleased with the new growth. My current stats are:

Neck 18.5"

Chest 47"

Left bicep 17"
Right bicep 17"
(I am happy that I have evened out my arms, so I can look at growing my arms again)

Left forearm 12.5"
Right forearm 13"

Waist 39"

Left thigh 26.25"
Right thigh 26.25"

Left calf 16.25"
Right calf 16.75"

So where next?
My new goals are 19" neck, 18.5" arms, 50" chest, and 28" thighs... Onwards and upwards...

Week from hell...

It has been a hectic week this week. I have arranged for 7 customers meeting in 3 days... Which means I've not been able to stick to my regular workout schedule. I've had to fit my standard week into 4 days, without any time for my body to recover. Not a good thing when I'm trying to grow my body.

So towards the end of last week, rather than missed a week's worth of gym-time, I decided to worked out 4 days in a row.

Normally, that would kill me. However, to give me the energy to see me through I broke my rule over the use of performance drinks, which I took everyday 30 minutes before my workout.

To be honest I was shocked by the result.

Admittedly, I've done a lot of research on the best performance drink on the market, and I'm currently using Driven Sports CRAZE. But taking this on a daily basis to aid in working out is astonishing. I was able to max-out on every exercise. In fact beating my personal best lifts in a large number of exercises over the four days; best of all no crash in the evening. In my opinion the best performance drink out there at moment is CRAZE.

So after the hectic weekend, I have had a long week of driving to appointments, trying to sell to clients and then flying home to pick up the children.

Unfortunately, solicitors are slow moving beast, and are governed by a strict internal hierarchy, so we have pitched to the minions, and they have assured that they will discuss it up the chain. Although on the surface it looks highly unsuccessful and soul destroying after all the hard work, I'm hopeful that like all seeds, a little tender care and watering, we'll have the green shots of new growth for the business.

Taking my own medicine

I was a bit low at the being of the week.

The reason?

The sad fact is I took my measurement again, and I plateaued. I was gutted, having pushed myself hard in the gym over the previous few weeks, I expected a slight shift. So I've been doing some thinking. Running over the different factors that may have meant that I made no gains over this period.

I have come in with a number of possibilities, so I've changed things up.

The first is my diet. I have been eating well, but on closer examination, probably not enough to support my growth. I probably consumed enough protein and calories to maintain my current gains, but not to add to them do with the support of my loving wife I've redeveloped my daily menu to increase the level of protein and carbs I consume.

The second is the vary the workout. I normally do a single set of 20 reps pre-exhaustion exercise on each new body part. I read somewhere the other day to try 2 set of 20 pre-exhaustion exercises prior to going heavy.

The result: it is a little early to hang out the flags, but with my improved diet, I seem to have more energy, and not having the rundown feeling. I've managed the gym, and a full day of work as well!

As for the workout. All I can say about today workout is amazing. I don't think I have ever felt so in the zone. I used the 2 set pre-exhaust exercise before each new body part. Even though at the end of the 2 set I can feel the muscles starting to get tried. I followed these with heavy, strict and slow sets. I could really feel the muscle working.

Gym etiquette

It amazes me how many people don't understand the basics of gym etiquette. There aren't many hard and fast rules in the gym environment besides, don't lift what you can't handle.

But there are a few things that, especially frequent gym goers need to be mindful of.

1. You were small once, be considerate and help the newbies if you can.

2. If you sweat a lot, take a towel. It ain't nice sitting in someone else puddle of sweat.

3. Use a deodorant, it won't hurt.

4. Don't spend your time in the gym on your phone. You're there to workout.

5. If you have women at your gym, treat them respect and don't stare.

6. If you need to shout whilst workout, make sure it is a decent weight!

7. Put your weights away after you've used them, after all you put them there.

8. Respect your fellow gym member. Unless you own the gym, you both have equal rights to be there!

Variety is the spice of life ...

As the saying goes 'variety is the spice of life'. This is holds true for building muscle as well.

A lot people going to gym work hard to devise a routine that works all the muscle groups and allows for good recovery. Initially, they will make great gains; but over time, they become accustomed to their workout, they get to know their way between the the different bits of equipment, become comfortable with going to the gym, and even do their routine on autopilot, and could even tell you to the minute how long their workout will last.

The problem is that the body becomes use to a static, unchanging, routines. The good gains they make early on slowly dry up, and they can become disillusioned and stale because the workouts become boring and they plateau out. This is when a lot of people stop exercising.

To ensure that you maintain the gains and keep the spice in your workout, you need to vary your routine. This will keep the body from becoming accustomed to any static routine.

This don't mean you have devise a new routine every time you intend to workout. All you need to do is change your workout.

So rather than starting with say shoulders, begin with your chest, or even rather than doing shoulder presses followed by lateral raise, swap the order. It could also be as simple a changing the number of reps/sets you perform. This will change the way your muscles are stressed and should allow you to maintain the gains and hold off when your body plateaus.

It also means you can stay engaged with your exercise routines, and hopefully stay interested in going to the gym.

Fun of being a father

Well I thought I had a few more years before I would need to be waking up at ungodly hours to ferry my daughters around to their different outings. But alas no.

This morning, my eldest had a school day trip to France, so I was up at 4:30am to get my eldest out of bed to get her ready to leave the house at 5:30.

Why so early?

I know my daughter and it takes her time to get kicked started in the morning. Once she's up it's not to bad, but getting her out of bed can be interesting.

So I'll be out tonight at 11pm picking her up from the school when she gets back. All to allow her to go in to a French patessire to buy a croissant!

Having said that, it is a wonderful opportunity for her to try out he french on the locals, something that I did have the option to do, although I don't think I would have come away with anything from the shop as my French has a lot to be desired.

Energy drinks whilst training

I am sure you've seen it to, people in the gym regularly guzzling energy drinks throughout their workouts. A lot of these are based on high levels of caffeine to give a short energy boost that will help them through their session. It can get to a point that some claim that they cannot get the same level of pump from their exercises without using them.

The problem is, if these people consistently use energy drinks to aid in their workout, the body becomes reliant on these chemical aids, and without them their workouts will suffer.

The best way to use these energy boost products is sparingly. Ideally not more than once a week, this ensures that your body does not become reliant on their chemical induced boost to get through your workout. It also means that when you do use the energy drinks, you feel the effects without having to increase the level of dosage.

So find a good product that works for you, as everybody physiology is different, and use sparingly.

Exercise and depression

In a recent medical study published in the British Medical Journal says there is no direct link with exercise and positive effect on depression (http://tinyurl.com/6rtjk6j).

From personal experience, I wouldn't agree. I know that if I've not been to the gym for a while I can have some very black days. I used to forego the gym because of a ill founded sense of duty, to work or family. Over these periods, my view of the world would suffered badly.

However, since I became self employed I have made sure to make time for the gym. This had benefited me in two ways. One is I've not suffered the dark shadow of depression, and my body has responded well.

So I would say if you do suffer from depression, maybe exercise could give you the same freedom it has offered me.

'life in the fast lane'

I found myself coming back from London today in the midst of the rush hour. We successfully negotiated 10miles on the M25 in 1hour. What fun!

It's days like this that make me glad to be self employed. With the power to fit the day around the 'fun' of the rush hour. I remember my 3 hour commute on a Friday night home, which on any other day took about 1 hour.

So even though you loose the satisfying comfort of a guaranteed pay cheque at the end of each month, the benefits you can gain, do out weigh it.

Sadly, No gym today, so I'm having to drop a rest day this weekend, to keep my schedule from slipping. So it will be an early start tomorrow for a pump day on chest and shoulders.

My chest has never been so well defined. It is amazing how bad form can screw up potential muscle grow. So remember don't be tempted by the big weights. Keep the exercises strict and slow. The weights will grow, but this way your body will grow faster.

Work and play

Next Thursday is the third CPD event in a series of four. Basically we offer free training events to our customers and potential customers. It's always a nerve racking time as I have to face my foe, the telephone and do a bit of cold calling. Still, I did it this morning.

Lunch time I headed for the gym, power day, lots of heavy weights and low reps for strength, I did my best ever strict bicep barbell curl, 110lbs. It felt amazing! My wife gave them a prod in the car, which means she successfully guessed which body part I worked out.

Then back to the office to see some more work had come in, lovely. Unfortunately, I skipped a proper lunch, not great when i am trying to grow. And had to settled for a protein drink instead. Definitely getting more size making the shakes up with semi skimmed milk instead of water.

Then this evening focused on getting the reports done, hopefully it will be a lot cooler than it is now.

Good day really.

Long day

As promised, a busy week. We've been flying around the south coast, doing our searches. It is nice to share the time with my wife, even though we are in the car, it is good to have time to chat and laugh together without the children.

This was followed closely by an afternoon and early evening completing the reports and sending out to customers.

All this an I still managed to get into the gym :)

Now I can have a relaxed evening knowing that I've worked and played hard.

Legs

After a busy weekend and unusually busy Monday with work, it was good to get to the gym today. It was a pump day, legs, back and biceps.

I always have trouble getting a good pump in my thighs, as years of field sports have made them quite strong and resilient to exercise. They do respond, and grow, but I never get that feeling of pumped muscle.

So today, I thought I'd drop in some additional leg extension super-sets with my leg press, dropping the weight once on the leg extension super-sets, going to failure on each set of the extensions.

I follow this by doing lunges, but rather than using a barbell at the squat station, I performed them on the smith-machine. I super-set these with no weight sissy squats to finish off my thighs.

Amazing pump tonight. I would highly recommend performing lunges on the smith-machine as this really isolates the thighs.

So I happily sitting here now nicely tired, with an amazing tightness in my thighs. Love it.

It always amazes me how so many people don't work their legs regularly. When I was in the North-West, this was frowned upon, The common nickname for this sort of guy was 'sparrow-legs'. They work on the theory that they can wear trousers at all times and so there is no point to working them. But they can end up looking top heavy, also they can never think about doing a show with such a weak body part.

Busy weekend

We had a good day yesterday, at the X-Press Legal National meeting (http://www.xpresslegal.co.uk), lots of new thing happening this year that will be of great benefit to our clients. I am really looking forward to getting with the clients and discussing our new advances. I know they will be impressed, and as eager as me to get it live.

The majority of the meeting was taken up with the first of 4 seminars with Chrissie Lightfoot (@TheNakedLawyer, http://entrepreneurlawyer.co.uk/) on making social media work for you in business. A great seminar building the blocks for the future. Looking forward to the next seminar as we move forward on this.

Today it's the turn of our eldest, with her bowling birthday party, we're supervising from a suitable distance, so We don't cramp her style, as if we would.

Her major present this year is a visit to the new Hogwarts film set exhibit (http://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/) in London, I think the whole family is looking forward to it, and trying out Butter Beer.

The only downside of this weekend (beside the 'Sooty Show', arcade game, constantly chirping, 'put in some money and watch the show to win a prize'), is that I won't be able to get to the gym this weekend! A travesty I know, but I'll be back in the gym tomorrow for a pump day. But it'll throw out my workout schedule for the rest of the week, especially as I've a busy work week coming.

Slow down

Have you ever seen people rushing around the gym, fitting an hour's working into 20 minutes?

Performing each set at break neck speed, only having a 10 second breather before their next workout, or set? Then proudly proclaiming that they've finished they workout in record time?

Sorry to say, but this ain't the way to go if you want to build good quality muscle.

With these super fast workout you will get physically tried and thus feel that you 20 minute stint in the gym was worth it. But you are only working out your fast-twitch muscles and not the all important, and bigger, slow-twitch muscles. These are the boys that give you the muscle mass.

So if you only have a finite amount of time for the workout, cut back on the amount of exercises/sets you have planned for that session. Take it down to the basics, ensuring your still covering all the body parts you had planned for.

This way you have more time to focus on the exercises, move the weights slowly and deliberately. This will get your larger slow-twitch muscle groups in on the act, and you will still benefit from even time-limited workout sessions.

Strict form

A really good day at the gym today; a pump day, getting the blood flowing into the muscle to promote recovery after my power day yesterday. Felt really strong, and increased all my weights for the exercises, but kept the strict form, result? I got an amazing pump.

One thing you do notice, especially after concentrating on making sure you are observing strict form on your own exercises, is the number of people, surprisingly, both experienced and novices that are obsessed with moving the most poundage, irrespective of the form. (Yep, I was guilt of this too, and suffered ripped lat muscle - painful)

What they are missing is that because they are jerking the weight to get it moving by rocking their body, they are not getting the maximum benefit.

Sure it looks great when you load the the numerous plates on the bar, or select the full stack, but when you try to move it without strict form, not only are you only really moving a fraction of the actual weight, but your also putting your body under additional stress, which can lead to muscle strains, or worst.

The best thing to do is to stop trying to impress your peers, and stop trying to prove your right to be there by using the big weights.

Everybody has the right to be in the gym.

While you're in the gym, FOCUS.

Focus on your form, keep it strict.

Focus on your muscles, be aware of which muscle group you are intending to work and make sure that you actually feel them working.

Yes, you'll have to lighten the weights, but the weights you can handle will increase. You will grow, and you will benefit from fewer injuries and muscle or joint strains.

Back in gym after 2 days rest

The hardest part of building your body, is having the discipline to let your body recover.

There are so many guys who go to the gym 7 days a week, and expect their body to grow muscle. Yes, you'll loss weight, but you not giving you body time to recover.

Without the discipline to have rest days, all that pumping of iron, and strict diet is not gonna help.

Father's day

Had a wonderful breakfast in bed this morning brought up by my two lovely little girls. Also I was lucky to got loads of BCAA and Creatine, well timed as I'd just ran out. Also some chewy chocolate protein bars from CNP. Great for when I'm stuck in the car.

Stats 16/6/12

My stats today

Neck 18
Chest 48.5
Bicep l 16.5 r 17
Waist 38
Thigh l 25 r 25.5
Calf l 16 r 16.5
Forearm 13 r 13

I'm really chuffed that my arms are starting to balance out, as from on a double bicep flex you can see the difference.

Not bad for a day of rest...

Power Day

Great to be back at the gym. I know it has only been 2 days, but I just working out.

Power day today, legs; back; traps and biceps. Love to push myself as hard I can go.

Pump day tomorrow

Day of rest

No gym today or tomorrow, rest days. Looking forward to getting back to the gym Thursday.

Ran out of my matrix protein last night, so I'm back on CNP products. This time I'm trying Promass, as I don't think my diet has enough calories to help me grow. Somehow I picked up strawberry, mixing with milk. Clean taste and thicker than the CNP's Whey Protein that I had previously.

My current supplements

Matrix anabolic matrix 80% pure protein
- All the reviews have said how the this tastes a bit poor and isn't the smoothest of shakes. All are true, but the taste you get use to and it does have an amazing 40g per serving.

LA Muscle Norteen Heavyweight
I preferred the LA Muscle Vasculator combined with their Discorea Deltoidea tablets. Unfortunately, you cannot buy Discorea now, as they have this product in Norteen line. Shame because I made some amazing gains while I was on these two together


Procreatine 2 creatine ethyl ester
a lot better than the old days when you had to load up and come off it after a month.

ZMA zinc magnesium vitamin B6
This is something that I read about recently. It helps you sleep at night after a heavy workout, and yes it works, not slept so well since adding this to my routine supplements.

Branched chain amino acids
'nough said important for muscle recovery and growth

Centrum advanced multi
Standard off-the-shelf multi-vit to make sure I not lacking anywhere as it's amazing how a deficiency can restrict a body's growth

Craze
A recent find. I used to use CNP's Naplam, but it never really worked for me. Read all the reviews, and besides the comments about the taste DS Craze was bigged-up up as amazing. And it was, I take about 1.5 scoops 30 mins before working out and I feel amazing at the gym. I would highly recommend it.

Current stats

I have recently started my power/size phase of my bodybuilding training, here are some of my starts from just before I started and some from last week..

Neck. 17in
Chest. 44 in
Bicep. L 15. R 16
Waist. 38 in
Thigh. L 22. R 24
Calf. l 16 in R 16
Forearm L 12 R 12

I do have a little symmetric issue in my arms.

Measurements on 1 June

Neck: 18in
Chest: 46in
Bicep L: 16in R: 17 in
Waist: 39in
Thigh L:24in R:24.5
Calf L: 16 R: 16.5
Forearm L: 12.5 R: 12.5

Go progress so far, but gotta watch my waist ;)

Nerd at the gym

Well to be honest I am a bit of a nerd. Having made my career in the IT industry until the down-turn. You wouldn't think that the defence industry, or national security would of been effected by the squeeze on spending, especially so close to the olympics.

Any how, let's see it as an opportunity to move forward and grow my experience.

One benefit of the change in circumstances is that I can get back to my little hobby/obsession as my wife may put it.... Bodybuilding.

I'm not into running for hours on a treadmill, or lifting light weight for toning. No unfortunately, I enjoy the dark side, straight up bodybuilding.

So this is my blog of the gym life, family and work life.

If you find it interesting, or have some training advice drop let me know.

Cheers