Category Archives: Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Should I get a powerlifting coach or a lifting partner when it comes to powerlifting training??? Yes, I should lift with someone…

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I already do have a few powerlifting coaches/partners but they live all the way out in Albany so they only coach me “part-time”. For now, I try to coach myself in powerlifting. For the big three lifts, I learn my form by watching powerlifting youtube videos online through youtube channels such as Mark Rippetoe, Alan Thrall, Omar Isuf, Silent Mike, Mark Bell, Jonnie Candito and all those powerlifting guys that teach you online. That’s how I taught myself in powerlifting pretty much.

My powerlifting friends that live out in Albany also taught me a lot.

While all this is good; however, I do want to get a powerlifting coach and lifting partner of my own. I should really find other local powerlifting friends that can help me even more and I’m gonna try. While some people say my form is good on the big three lifts: the deadlift, the squat and the bench… I feel that my form is not all the way perfect 100% but I’m still trying.

The squat is my least favorite lift of the big three ’cause it’s so challenging to get depth right but I’m getting the hang of it and getting better, though. To get depth right for the USAPL, the hip crease joint needs to be lower than the top of the knee and I’ve been trying to get that. I can get that easily with the lighter weights but when the squats get heavy,  it’s challenging to get depth right. I think the squat is the most challenging of the big three, it really is.

I would like an experienced coach or a lifting partner so they can help me perfect my form on the squat. I also could use more help on building strength faster and so my numbers can go up quicker. Some people say it’s impossible for numbers to go up quicker and build super human strength faster but it is possible. Just need to stay consistent and there are some tricks out there.

I really shouldn’t train powerlifting all by myself ’cause I think it would be fun to train with other people. At my local gym at the Battenkill YMCA in Greenwich, I’m always seeing guys doing the big three lifts there all the time: squat, bench and deadlift. Each time I see those guys do those lifts, I keep asking myself: “Are these guys competitive powerlifters?” They may be and it don’t hurt for me to ask them next time I see them and I could ask them to be my coach/partner. Don’t hurt to try.

If I want to become a great powerlifter… become one of the bests, a powerlifting coach with experience would help. I just gotta ask around. Talk with other powerlifters and meet other lifters and who knows what might happen. I gotta network more in the powerlifting community and I have been. Gotta get yourself out there and get yourself known in the community.

I’ll find somebody hopefully and gonna try. I wouldn’t mind paying them either if that’s what it’s gonna take.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Think I may as well join the USAPL after all… I might do my first USAPL meet in January…

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I think next month, I’n definitely gonna become a USAPL member ’cause I’m already planning to do my first USAPL meet after all.

To sign up for the USAPL, it’s gonna cost me $65 since I’m an over 40 lifter, I’m gonna be competing in the Masters division.

https://www.usapowerlifting.com/member-tools/membership.php

There’s a powerlifting event coming up in Jan. in Loudonville called, “The Northeast IronBeast”, I’m planning to do their full meet which will cost me $95.

https://northeast-iron-beast-powerlifting.blogspot.com/p/usa-powerlifting-northeast-iron-beast.html?fbclid=IwAR0qhPLSJnTN82Gd4B77swWqn7dG8vdbTW4PREtu5zCGy5xpdCXUIvMSGcA

My numbers in bench, deadlift and squat could be up a little higher but this meet will give me plenty of time to bring them up.

I know I said I wasn’t gonna be ready for USAPL but maybe I should give it a shot? I want to experience my first USAPL meet to see what it’s like. I should give it a go. It be kind of cool to win some extra cash anyways.

Plus, I love the sport of powerlifting. I just like going to them. Not just to compete myself but also to watch other lifters ’cause it’s a blast. I think the Northeast IronBeast would be a good opportunity for my first USAPL meet. It’s going to be pretty pricey, yes but it’ll be worth it.

I have friends that are powerlifters that are going to do this meet and I think I’m gonna do it with them. It’ll be fun.

Kev

 

 

Health and Fitness

Debate: To be one of the greatest powerlifters of all time, do you need to be a fat ass? Um no! Absolutely not!!!

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People in the powerlifting community like to argue that you need to be a fat ass and overweight in powerlifting in order to lift the big numbers. Is that always true? No. Not really.

From what I’ve seen in powerlifting over the last few years is that powerlifters come in all shapes and sizes from skinny to muscular to very overweight people.

In the past, it used to be that powerlifting was for fat asses only but I think bodybuilders have picked up on powerlifting over the years. I’ve noticed that powerlifting has become extremely popular in the bodybuilding world. More and more people with bodybuilder like physiques has been competing for powerlifting.

What will it take to get people to realize that powerlifting isn’t just for fat asses? If Russell Orhii isn’t good enough to prove that then I don’t know what to say. Russell Orhii is a young black dude as you can see in the video above and if you look him up in youtube, you’ll see that he has a great bodybuilding physique. A bodybuilder that is into powerlifting.

Some say bodybuilders can’t lift the huge numbers in powerlifting. Um, please. Of course they can! Don’t you know that hypertrophy like training style like lifting in between the rep rages of 8 – 12 can build you pretty good strength? Yes. Building muscle on every body part can build you pretty good strength. A lot of powerlifters out there refuses to train like a bodybuilder still and I do both. I want to get huge someday but I’m not gonna be “fat” huge, I wanna be “muscular” huge if that makes sense. Even if I’m a powerlifter now, I still train like a bodybuilder. I can’t ignore hypertrophy training. A lot of powerlifters don’t want to admit that hypertrophy training and building muscle can be useful for strength training. You don’t want to do heavy sets and few reps all the time.

I do want to become a great powerlifter someday but I’m not gonna stuff my face with a lot of calories and gain a lot of bodyfat… no freakin’ way. I’m gonna continue to build muscle to get strong. On chest day, I do heavy sets and few reps on bench but I do hypertrophy on everything else. Hypertrophy can’t be ignored. A huge chest will help get you bigger numbers on bench.

Anyhow, watch Russell Orhii’s attempts at the RAW Nationals from over the weekend. Although he was slightly disappointing, I thought he did great. This dude is gaining my respect. I’m a huge fan of Russell. I hope to meet that dude in person someday.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Think I need a break from deadlifting, squatting and quad lifting until my minor leg injury heals all the way… yep, still got it…

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Yup, like the title says I think I need a little break from deadlifting, squatting and training the quads completely until my minor left leg injury heals completely. Both of my quads are completely fine, though. I think what’s hurt is my left hip flexor is what they call it. The upper thigh area on the left leg, that’s the hip flexor I think. The injury is not superbad, I’m good enough to walk around and move but I should have gave it a lot more time off. Starting this week, no deadlifting, no squatting at the squat rack and no quad training of any kind until my leg injury heals all the way. It’ll probably take two or three weeks or a little more.

I can still train the lower body when it comes to leg day, though. I can still train the calves and the hamstrings but not the quads.

My left shoulder weakness is gone, my left shoulder is 100% good so now I’m back to regular heavy lifting on the upper body… but the lower body I need to settle down for a while again. I’ll take time off of training the quads until it heals 100%.

The human body is weird, ya know? At one point, you think the injury is gone and once you get back to lifting heavy, you get it back. I should have waited a lot longer and I will this time. Still have it a little bit but not terribly bad. I just want it gone completely so I can get back to heavy deadlifting again.

Injuries are frustrating and annoying but I do get ’em admittedly. Once in a blue moon, that happens. I just don’t panic. Keep staying positive and just keep moving, staying active. That’s what you want to do. When you’re injured from the gym, you shouldn’t be lazy and be bed ridden ’cause of it. You gotta keep moving and keep going about your day ’cause that helps heals the injury too.

I don’t go to the doctor ’cause all they’re going to do is give me orders to stay out of the gym and I can’t do that. There are ways to work around injuries. You can either train light weights or not train the hurt part at all. I’d suggest not training the hurt part and that’s what I’m gonna do. Like I said in the past, you want injuries to go away faster, gotta stop putting weight on it and I’m gonna do just that. The reason I had it for a long while ’cause I keep putting weight on it by continuing to workout through it and I gotta stop that but deadlifting is addicting, though. No more of that for a while.

It’s okay to take time off from barbell training once in a blue moon but the only reason you should take time off is when you’re either injured or sick. Don’t take time off from barbell training just because you feel like it and want to slack off from the gym.

I might be doing another powerlifting meet at the Wilton YMCA ’cause there’s another one of those in Nov. and I want to be completely injury free for this one. I didn’t hear anything new from Albany Strength so I think I might be doing the YMCA meet instead.

I love powerlifting. It’s an amazing sport and you can’t keep training through injuries even minor ones. Gotta stop that. If you want to smash your big lifts, gotta be completely injury free 100%.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

Full body fitness progress pics… Enjoy!!!

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I thought I would finally show off my full body fitness and bodybuilding progress. Click through the 4 pics in my Instagram pics above and you’ll see I don’t skip leg day. After a little over 10 years of bodybuilding, I never really showed off my lower body work until now.

Admittedly, I was a little nervous posting these pics since I’m wearing nothing but boxer briefs but turns out people had no problem with them and they’re getting some pretty positive feedback on my physique which feels good.

This is what over 10 years in the gym, looks like y’all. It may not look much but hey, maybe muscle building is a slow process but I think I look pretty damn decent here. I finally got the “bodybuilder” look that I wanted.

I posed in boxer briefs ’cause that’s the only type of underwear that I have. Would I ever pose in bodybuilding trunks or speedos so I can show off my FULL leg work from top to bottom? Yes I would! Like the instagram post says, that’s what bodybuilding is here for so you can show off your hard work in the gym.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… some assholes out there will look at my pics and may think I’m some sort of ego-driven attention whore but fuck ’em, ya know? I’m sure some are gonna make fun of me but once again, fuck ’em. I’m not upset with critics and trolls anymore like I used to be. If you’re getting critics making fun of your bodybuilding goals then chances are they are probably a fat fuck or a skinny person with no muscle that is jealous of you so pay no mind to ’em.

Bodybuilding is a journey and a lifestyle. You should be able to show off what you got and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Enjoy the pics. I love what I do.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Will I ever join the USAPL so I can do their local and national meets??? Yes, I plan to do that sometime in the future but not right now…

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Since I’ve been getting serious in the sport of powerlifting lately, some of you may ask, will I ever join the USA Powerlifting (aka USAPL) so I can start doing their local and national meets? I have powerlifting friends who are USAPL members and they do USAPL meets all the time. That’s how I got into powerlifting ’cause of them, they were my inspiration of getting into this

I was watching USAPL RAW Nationals live on youtube most of the day yesterday ’cause one of my powerlifting friends from NY was competing in Chicago for the RAW Nationals so I watched him on there. I also watched the RAW Nationals at night so I can watch Jonnie Candito and Russell Orhii compete. Candito and Orhii are two well-known powerlifters with their own youtube channels. I watched both of those guys compete on the live stream on youtube last night. Orhii was kind of disappointing but Jonnie Candito killed it, though.

I like to watch live powerlifting meets online all the time ’cause 1) It’s a blast to watch other lifters compete and 2) I use it a way to educate myself about powerlifting.

Someday I’m gonna sign up for the USAPL so I can start doing their local, state and RAW nationals meets. I think the USAPL would be good for me but I’m not ready for this yet. Why? It’s because I’m going to wait until I start hitting the bigger weights. When I feel that I’m good enough for certain numbers that I want that would be good enough for USAPL, I’ll start thinking about becoming a member.

For right now, my numbers for deadlift is about 290 – 300 lbs, bench is about 155 – 165 lbs, and squat is about 135 – 155 lbs. I feel those numbers aren’t good enough for USAPL, yet. When I start getting over 300 lbs. for deadlift and over 200 lbs. for bench and squat, I’ll start thinking about signing up for USAPL. For now, I’m not ready.

As of this moment, I’ll just stick with the smaller local meets like at Albany Strength and the Wilton YMCA.

My goal and my dream that I want to achieve in powerlifting is that I hope to become one of the greats someday. I do want to become the next Russell Orhii, Ray Williams, Ed Coan and Jonnie Candito someday down the road. I’m just not gonna rush and take my time. Be patience. Don’t want to get too ahead of myself.

Someday, I do want to compete on the bigger meets like the RAW Nationals Prime Time. One of these days, I’ll make it on there. I want to become a great powerlifter someday and there’s nothing wrong with having that goal. I feel that I already am killing it in powerlifting and already off to a great start.

I do love the sport, though and plan to stick with it for a very long time. The RAW Nationals in Chicago is gonna be happening all weekend so I’m gonna be watching a lot of it. Not only do I love to compete in powerlifting myself, it’s also a blast watching other lifters do their thing. Powerlifting is an inspiring sport, love it so much.

Some of you may tell me, “But Kev, you’re getting too old for powerlifting”. Nope. Age is just a number. It’s never too late to get into powerlifting. I mean, yesterday morning, I was watching the RAW Nationals and I’ve been seeing all kinds of middle aged men competing who are from the 50’s – 70’s age ranges or older. Those guys were lifting over 500 lbs., it was unbelievable seeing all that. If they can do it so can I. I’m only 42 now and soon to be 43 in December so I’m still pretty young but I can see myself doing this when I’m 70. If you want to lift heavy weights, age doesn’t matter. I’ll be a powerlifter until the day I die, I think… I don’t think I’ll ever give it up.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Bench press doesn’t give you chest gains, hey??? That’s not what I’ve been experiencing…

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There are a lot of bench press critics out there and I can’t understand why. Many aren’t fans of the flat barbell bench ’cause they claim it doesn’t give you big gains but that’s not what I’ve been experiencing. The bench seems to be helping me pretty good as you can see here. Starting to get the look that I want ’cause of it. I am feeling my pecs getting bigger week after week.

When I first started bodybuilding, I was struggling to grow my chest. I didn’t have much pecs at all in the past but lately, I finally started to figure it out. I feel it’s important to do other chest exercises other than the flat bench.

I’ve learned that you gotta do both the pushing and squeezing movements. I’ve also learned that you gotta get a full contraction by squeezing the chest hard at the top which I’ve also been doing. I’ve also been doing the incline barbell bench, dumbbell flies on bench, dumbbell press on bench, cable crossovers and started doing dips. All that seems to be helping me greatly.

Doing heavy bench press around the 1 – 5 rep ranges seems to be helping too. Some say that doing heavy sets and few reps is only for strength building yes but it can build muscle too, of course.

Don’t listen to bench press critics ’cause they’re all full of it, in my opinion. I think it’s one of the best chest exercises ever and they don’t call the bench the king of all workouts for no reason.

I do want to get giant pecs but that’s gonna take some more time and I’m not gonna rush. Just be patience and keep working for it. I’m finally starting to get that “bodybuilder” look which is what I was after all along.

I did all of this by myself… with no personal trainer and no workout partner. I never used steroids either and no supplement products at all. Just good eating, staying dedicated and consistent. You stay dedicated and consistent, you’ll reach your goals that you want.

I look pretty good here but still got a lot of work to do and I’ll always have a lot of work to do. Even though I consider myself a powerlifter now, I still train like a bodybuilder. I can’t give bodybuilding up. I do both powerlifting and bodybuilding.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Watch me smash a 300 lb. deadlift which I did earlier today…

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Here I am smashing an easy 300 lb. heavy single to end my deadlift session with earlier today. After nursing a minor upper left leg injury for a few weeks, I felt I was good enough to get back into some serious lower body work and that’s what I did this weekend.

Since a few weeks ago, I was able to smash a 290 lb. deadlift heavy single, I predicted that I would be able to smash a 300 lb. deadlift that I was trying to get back to. Here I am doing just that. Me smashing a 300 lb. deadlift single. Keep in mind, though, this is not a new P.R. Just a heavy single.

After this, I realized that I never plateaued at all in my deadlifting. It was my left leg injury that was holding me back like I was saying. Since I’m able to do 300 lb. singles for deadlift now, I could probably pull even more than 300. In the video above, that lift was a little shaky but I was able to lock it out pretty smoothly anyways.

Now my legs are wicked ass sore. My legs aren’t too friendly with walking up and down the stairs now, lmao… so I’m gonna be like this for a few days. My legs are sore ’cause I settled down on the lower body lifting for a few weeks but I feel real good. It’s just that deadlifting is so addicting and it’s so hard to stay away from, I can’t help myself. LMAO!!!

I think the left leg injury came back a little bit but not so bad. I’ll get right back to settling down on the lower body lifting so it can go away for good ’cause I’m sick of feeling it. I thought my leg was good enough to get back into heavy lifting again but jumped into it too soon again. I was proud of today’s lift, though. Now I’m on the road to 400 lb. deadlift and I think I can get there in 2020.

I love powerlifting.

Kev

Health and Fitness

My left leg is feeling a lot better, still feel a little tiny pain but not bad!!!

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I think I’ll give it another week of not training this left quad muscle… it’s feeling a lot better this week. I still feel a little tiny pain when standing for a long time but not too bad… it’s just about gone away. Yep… I’ll definitely take it easy on the lifting again this week so I can let it heal all the way. I want it healed all the way 100% so I can get back to some serious lifting on the lower body and I can get back to working real hard on the deadlifting.

Gonna have to take it easy on the left shoulder for another week too ’cause that’s getting better too. I didn’t train the left shoulder at all this week and will probably do the same for next week.

Next week, my minor injuries on the left leg and left shoulder should be gone completely and I should be 100% very soon hopefully. Once I am 100%, I’m gonna get back to some serious lifting and I will be more careful next time.

I might have another powerlifting meet coming in Nov. and I want to be completely injury free for this one. That way I can smash my best lifts. I’m hoping to make it to 200 lb. bench for this upcoming meet and hoping to make it to 300 lb. deadlift or more. Not sure if I lost a little bit of strength by taking it easy for a few weeks but who cares if I did or not. Even if I did lose a little strength, I’ll get it back quickly.

For the next powerlifting meet, I really want to bring my numbers up big ’cause that’s how you want to do powerlifting. You always want to bring your numbers up ’cause it isn’t good at all when your numbers on the big three lifts stays the same or goes down.

I want to be fully healed and injury free so I can get back into serious deadlifting again and kick some ass. I love deadlifting. It’s my favorite workout and favorite lift of them all and I want to be the best at it someday. I don’t want to mess up and don’t want to be too injury prone.

I used to never enjoy bench pressing but it’s growing on me and I’m loving it more and more.

Still not enjoying squats so much but I continue to do that lift anyways ’cause of powerlifting. I feel more comfortable deadlifting and have a blast doing that. I’ll be back into doing heavy deadlifting again soon… hopefully next week. No deadlifting again this week ’cause if I do, the injury on my left quad will come back big and I don’t want that. I’m going to wait until it heals all the way and then I’ll get back to working hard.

I’m feeling really good, though. I love powerlifting. It’s an awesome sport and happy that I finally found a sport that I can do.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Think I need a few weeks off of barbell lifting until my minor injuries heal completely…

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So this week, I decided to take a week off of barbell lifting completely. When your body is hurting and you don’t have it then that means that your body is telling you that you need to settle down on barbell lifting. I’m gonna do just that. Take a short break from barbell lifting of any kind.

I won’t stop lifting weights and going to the gym but I’ll stop training the body parts that are hurt like the upper left quad on the leg and my left shoulder is still bothering me a bit too. The injuries are not superbad, just very minor and tiny. So this week at the gym, I only trained the right shoulder only and for leg day, I didn’t bother doing barbell squats at all and only trained the right quad.

That seems to be helping and I’m already feeling better. Yep, like I said in a post before… you’re not gonna heal injuries by continuing to workout through them. When you feel pain, you gotta stop training that body part and stop putting weight on it.

I probably won’t do any deadlifting at all this week either. No bench press next week and will do light lifting on chest with dumbbells and machine instead. If your shoulders are hurting, you gotta stop bench pressing ’cause the bench works the shoulders pretty good.

These injuries are not all that bad… like I said, just “minor”. I’ll stop training those hurt body parts for a week or two and then I’ll be good.

I’m not worried about losing lifting strength ’cause usually when lifters come back from an injury, they usually come back even stronger and their pr’s on the big three usually go up too. Why? It’s ’cause you gave your body time to heal and got more muscle ’cause of it. Getting lifting injuries isn’t always a bad thing really… there can actually be some pretty good benefits getting minor injuries when lifting.

For the next powerlifting meet in Albany, I want to be completely injury free for the next one so I can smash my best lifts. I want to be able to smash 300 lbs. or over on deadlift so in order to do that, you need to be injury free.

Like I said, my injuries aren’t that bad so I won’t need a doctor or anything. I’ll be good in a week or two hopefully.

If you’re injured from the gym, don’t panic. You don’t have to stop lifting in the gym for a while when injured, there are ways to workout around the injuries. Just workout the body parts that aren’t injured… that way you won’t lose muscle and strength. If I’m not completely better next week, I’ll give it a third week. I want these injuries gone completely so I’ll give them even more time.

Getting injuries in the gym suck and yes, I do get ’em once in a while and everyone else does too. Like I said in a post before, when people claim they don’t get lifting injuries they are probably lying. Why would people lie about injuries and keep it to themselves? Well, ego for one thing. They’ll never admit publicly that their form sucks and they don’t want to look ridiculous. It’ll make them look weak if they admitted they got injured in the gym so they’ll never talk about injuries publicly.

I’ll be good in a week or two hopefully. If not then I may as well go see a doctor and see what’s up but I don’t need one for now.

Kev