Yesterday I took some pics of myself shirtless again, just to see how much my pecs improved. Yes, I’m seeing a little improvement. I guess doing barbell benching pays and does good. I do barbell benching once every week now. So far, I can only bench 95lb but I’ll stay there for a while until I get some strength enough to lift a little higher. Like I said, I’m not in a rush to lift super heavy like all the pros do. I’m taking my time and that’s how you wanna do it. I’ve also been doing a lot of decline dumbbell flies and incline dumbell presses as well. This stuff really works if you want bigger pecs. I’m going to keep doing what I do and by the end of this summer, I predict a major improvement in the future.

Enjoy and feel free to give me feedback. Don’t be afraid to tell me what I need worked on. I’m never offended at negative feedback.

Kev

Edit to add: I’ll post one of my older pics just so you can see how my chest developed from here…

Well, there it is. I’m 16.2 % bodyfat with me being 146 lbs. Just found it out today. I asked the owner/trainer, if that was pretty good, and do you know what he said? He said it’s not too bad at all. Just like I was saying earlier. He said I should drop down a couple and then I’ll be good. If I drop down some more, my six pack abs would be a lot more visible. You see, this is why I was able to gain muscle in a short period of time because I had decent bodyfat. If you’re a skinny guy with low bodyfat, it makes bodybuilding much easier. So yeah, this tells me two things: 1) I’m gaining muscle, big time. 2) It also tells me I’m not obesed at all. The gym owner/trainer there also said, I am more healthier than most people in the gym.

My new goal is to drop down a couple in bodyfat. So that means I will have to get more strict on meals and do at least 20-30 minute cardio every day. I’m still studying nutrition. For breakfast, I would eat either eggs and Quaker Oats Whole Grains. Instead of using butter, I will use Omega 3 Fish spread from now on which is what I’ve been doing. I will have to eat more vegatables and tossed salad. I’m still trying to get better at eating and learning.

Will still have one cheat on the weekends only though ’cause I’m gonna still crave for my ice cream which is my favorite cheat.

So I’ll take 16.2% even though I plan to go lower. Pretty happy about this and feel good.

Kev

Tomorrow when I go to the gym, I’m going to talk to the owner/personal trainer there to find out how much %’s bodyfat I have. If you’re getting into fitness, bodybuilding or whatever, it is important to know this that you need to know your bodyfat percentage. I’m about to find this out soon. I would like to learn to do it myself at home, but the owner at the gym says he has one of those electronic calliper things that does the work for ya. I believe the healthiest bodyfat percentage that you need to be in or under is 10%. I know it’s scary and it’ll make you nervous to know this but you need to, just so you can tell whether you are either gaining weight or gaining muscle.

Honestly, I shouldn’t be that bad. Looking at my progress pics, I am predicting to be a little around 10% – 11 %. I might have a little bit of flab to get rid of though. If I’m seeing a little bit of a six pack on the belly, I shouldn’t be that bad. If I’m a little more than 10, like I’ll have to get more strict on meals and concentrate on more jogging.

The key to getting ripped is eating right, plenty of resting after workouts, getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night, and training hard.

Kev

A little back posing. To explain the scar, yes, I had back surgery, but the surgery was years ago when I was a young teenager. Just showing off the back in a photo. It’ll take years ahead of me to get that Rambo look I want with the back, but I like what I see so far.

Kev

This article explains the deadlift really nicely:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson101.htm

It not only works the lower body of your legs, and the workout also works most of your upper body as well. When I tried this workout at the gym yesterday, I could feel it in most body parts explained in that article. My legs still feel kind of weird walking around. My shoulders and traps feel a little bit of it too. I took a day off from doing back workouts today ’cause the deadlift works most of your back anyways. Yes, the deadlift pretty much works out your whole body in one set. I plan to do this exercise more often.

Kev

So, I’m already on the move of changing my workout routines around some. Starting to get bored of using the same machines for the legs and studying some barbell stuff. This morning I studied “Dead Lift” and the “Hack Squat” both on barbells. Read about them online to study the position and the movements. Then I tried them at the gym using a barbell without weights at first, using a mirror to make sure I’m doing it right. Then once I get the hang of it, I lifted about 75 lbs for both workouts. Not too heavy, it was still pretty light for me anyways. The “Dead Lift” is for the hamstrings and other lower/upper bodyparts, the “Hack Squat” is for quads and other parts. Both workouts were pretty brutal. Doing barbell stuff is way better than the machines. You can feel the burn. I’ll lift light for now, I don’t want to rush into lifting too heavy yet. I didn’t need a spotter for these workouts, ’cause they were really simple to do.

I’m trying to vary my workouts. Doing different exercises is good for the body. You won’t get better results by doing the same exercises and lifting the same weights all the time.

Kev

Today at the gym, I did a little more benching. Regular barbell presses on a bench. I lifted 75 lbs for three sets and 10 reps each. Yes, I had a spotter. Everytime I bench, I’m gonna have a spotter, just to be safe and be careful. I used to disagree with benching, now I’m thinking it’s good. After today, lifting 75 lbs bench, I can feel the pump in my chest and it has gotten a little bigger, just a tiny bit. If I keep doing benching and various chest workouts throughout the summer, I could look like a mid-card wrestler or a welterweight boxer in no time.

As for certain rumours of me wanting to become a model, I didn’t exactly say that. I said if the opportunity came up and if many people want me to do it, maybe I’ll think about going for it but for now, my goal is hopefully wanting to get into some kind of physical sport. I never played sports in high school for my own reasons. Now that I can do anything physical I want…I’ll want to take up martial arts, boxing or wrestling…whatever I can take.

There is a martial arts school in Greenwich, and I plan to look into it soon. I’ll give them a call this week and find out the pricing. I feel that I’m strong enough to get into martial arts, I think.

Another one of my goals is to change my weekly workout program around ’cause you don’t want to be doing the same exercises all the time. I’m slowly trying to avoid the weight lifting machines, and going to dumbells/barbell stuff more often. I would avoid the lat pull down machine and do only pull ups for lats. Pull ups is a powerful workout for your back. I do those all the time at home too with the chin up bar.

I didn’t ask the gym owner about percentage bodyfat yet, ’cause he was busy with other things, training other people so I didn’t want to bother him. I’ll talk to him about that stuff next time whenever it’s not busy there. I could avoid the local gym too, but the only reason I go is because the subscription is cheap, $39 a month. Can’t say no to that. There are ways to get jacked without even going to the gym. All you need is a set of dumbells and your own bench press, and wallah, there’s your home gym. I go to the gym ’cause I don’t have my own barbell sets yet which I plan to start collecting in the future.

My blog site has been slow, been doing other things. I’ll have another busy weekend this week ’cause of work and I have to attend a local Benefit event this Sunday, so I will try to blog as much as I can and catch up with the news I’ve been missing.

Kev

Summer is the time when you need to set goals of what you want to achieve for the next three months.

Here are mine:

• Find out how much percentage bodyfat I have: This is something I haven’t learned yet and will soon. Next time I go to the gym which will be tomorrow, I’ll ask the trainer/owner of the place to teach me how. It’s probably pretty simple. Anybody out there is welcome to teach me how in this blog. I shouldn’t be that bad.
• Need to tan more and get darker skin: A reader here is right that I could be a little darker to show more muscle definition. I would tan the natural way by laying under the sun and would avoid those electronic tanning bed things at the tanning salons. The tanning beds are dangerous and could kill you I’ve read. You can get a good natural tan just by laying under the sun. I’ll be doing some reading about this as well.
• Try to improve the chest pecs all around, upper and lower: I’ll be doing more benching and more dumbell decline flies. Incline dumbell presses and dips helps too. Also, push ups is a very important pecs exercise. I’m always doing pushups at home all the time.
• Avoid cardio machines in the gym, do more outside cardio: In my opinion, the gym is possibly the worst places to do cardio in. Too noisy, and people bothering ya when they want to talk to you about fun things. It’s better doing cardio outside with the fresh air, the sun and more peaceful concentration for yourself. For outside cardio, I like bike riding and light jogging. Hopefully I’ll do more swimming too.

I can think of more but these are the top 5.

Kev