Tag Archives: Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

So gyms are closed… don’t worry about losing muscle and strength for a few weeks…

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So a lot of gyms all across America are closing left & right and before you know it, all gyms will be closed. If your gym is closed, I’m sure you all are freakin’ out about it… you’re probably like, “Oh no, I’m going to lose all my muscle and strength. Lose all my hard work and gains!”.

Um, no you won’t. A lot of gyms out there are only going to be closed for a few weeks and you won’t lose muscle in a few weeks. If you’re not working out, yes, your muscle will start to atrophy but that’s not gonna happen right away.

Not too long ago when I took a month off to heal a leg injury, I came back from the gym and didn’t really lose any strength at all. I’ve noticed that. I didn’t lose my bench press, deadlift and squat numbers at all. I was still doing 40 lb. dumbbell arm curls too. So I would assume that it takes a few months for muscle to start to atrophy.

Years of hard work, you won’t lose even if you take a little break from it.

It’s funny, ya know. I took a little break from the gym not too long ago to heal a leg injury but looks like I’ve got to take a little break from working out again due to all the gym closures.

Anyhow, if you still feel the need to work out, you can do a bunch of body weight workouts at home like all the workouts Arnold just posted on his instagram for example. You just gotta be creative and think. Do bodyworkouts, do yoga and all kinds of stretching. Lots of possibilities. If you don’t have access to a gym, you can workout anywhere.

I’m not gonna lie that I’m pretty bummed about gym closings too but what are ya gonna do, ya know? It’s only for a few weeks, I hope. When gyms get back open, I’m gonna get back to training real hard all Summer long.

Also, think of as gyms closing down as an opportunity to rest and heal. Your body and cns probably needs a little break and if you have injuries, it’s a good opportunity to heal all injuries too ’cause I know you’re probably hiding a few minor injuries, lol.

You don’t always need a gym to workout in. If you need your cardio, forget all those cardio machines in the gym… you can go for a walk outside and ride your bike. Walking outside and riding bike is not cancelled so go for it.

Kev

Health and Fitness

The only time you should be taking time off from the gym is when you’re either injured or sick… but taking time off from the gym ’cause you don’t want to workout is not good…

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If you want to get real strong and get real muscular in bodybuilding & powerlifting, you gotta stay consistent. You can’t give it up. That means you gotta keep going all year round. You’re not gonna get strong and muscular by slacking from the gym. Too many lifters slack from the gym from time to time. Slacking, their way of saying that they stopped going to the gym and taking time off from the gym just because they don’t want to workout or don’t feel like it which is bad. A lot of lifters do that from time to time, take a long break and then they come back to the gym admitting they’ve been slacking.

There are people who only work out at certain times of the year. It’s mostly during Spring/Summer where public gyms get real busy but during the Fall/Winter that’s when a lot of people would stop.

You see, I don’t do that. I like to workout in the gym all year-round. Stay in shape all-year round. I keep going to the gym all year round even throughout the Fall-Winter. This is what you must do if you want to have the body of your dreams and get real strong for powerlifting. The more you take time off, the more your body starts to atrophy… meaning that you’ll lose muscle. You won’t get strong and you won’t build muscle by not working out and not lifting weights. You won’t keep the muscle when you take a lot of time off from the gym. Sorry but that’s just the sad truth. That’s why you gotta stay consistent and not give it up.

This is why I feel I’ve gotten bigger in size. It’s why my arms are getting bigger and it’s why I’ve gotten some pretty serious chest gains ’cause I’ve been hitting the gym non-stop throughout the 4 seasons all year round. I’m committed and dedicated to this.

I rarely take time off from the gym except for one or two times a year. The only time you should take time off from the gym is when you’re either very sick or injured.

I haven’t been doing lower body lifting for the past two weeks ’cause I’m trying to make my left leg injury go away for good. I may have to give it another week this weekend ’cause I still got it just a little tiny bit. It’s feeling a lot better now but I still got it just a little. I should take the whole month of Nov. off of the gym ’cause my body feels beatup. It’s a good idea for me to take Nov. off of lifting so I can heal and recharge. My left shoulder still feels a little weak admittedly so I guess no upper body lifting for a few weeks as well.

I want to heal all the way so I can get back into strength training for powerlifting hopefully in Dec. I just want these injuries gone for good. It’s okay to take time off from the gym if you’re hurting, though ’cause that’s what you gotta do. You won’t get rid of injuries faster if you keep training that hurt body part. When you don’t put weight on it, the injury will go away faster but if you train that hurt body part again, it’ll come back or will get worse. That’s why you gotta stop training as soon as possible.

This sucks ’cause I want to get back into heavy lifting again so I can prepare for my first USAPL meet whenever that will be. I don’t think I’ll do a USAPL meet this year but I think 2020 will be my year for sure.

During injury recovery, I might lose a little bit of muscle and strength but I’ll get it back. Injuries are frustrating and annoying but once I heal completely, I’ll be more careful so I won’t get ’em ever again.

Nov. is a great time for me to settle down on the lifting in the gym, though. Sometimes you need that so you can heal and recharge. I do know that when I get back into heavy lifting, my body will be sore after but that’s good.

I want to get back into big deadlifting again ’cause I’m missing that already. I could if I wanted but if I did then my left leg injury would come back and don’t want it to come back. It’s just about getting better right now so I think I’ll give it two more weeks. No doctor needed. I can heal it all on my own.

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

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

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

Health and Fitness

Watch me smash a 165 lb. bench at the gym… on the road to 200 lb. bench…

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Here’s me smashing a 165 lb. bench which seemed pretty easy. If I’m able to smash an easy 165 lb. bench press then my estimated personal record could be either 170 lbs. or 175 lbs… maybe even 180 if I’m lucky enough!

As you can see I’m getting real close to 200 lb. bench pr… and I could probably get there at the end of this year or maybe even sooner. That’s the goal. My goal is to be able to smash a 200 lb. bench pr.

I got to really bring my numbers up for upcoming powerlifting meet at Albany Strength.

As far as my left leg injury goes, it seems to be perfectly fine now. I don’t feel any pain standing for a long time now which is a good thing so I might be good to get back to heavy lifting on the lower body this week. The injury didn’t really come back after I pulled that 290 lb. deadlift, it just made my legs wicked sore for a few days. That’s what happens when you settle down for a few weeks which I did. Now the leg injury is gone completely, I think, I’m pretty sure it is. We’ll see on leg day this week.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Why do people with bodybuilder like physiques get so much flak for being shirtless??? I don’t get it…

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You see it online and you see it in the real world in person. People with bodybuilder like physiques getting so much flak for wanting to be shirtless all the time. It’s a real problem with male bodybuilders in today’s society anyway. When a man with a great physique that wants to be shirtless then chances are he’s gonna get told by someone to put a shirt on.

We’re now in an age where people find it offensive that men with great bodies wanting to show it all off. Yet when overweight fat asses and chubby men take their shirts off, nobody says anything and that is accepted. That’s how fucked up this is.

When us men with the great physiques wanna show off… people say it’s offensive and they call us egotistical attention whores for wanting to do it too. Us men get into a lot of trouble for wanting to show off our big pecs and six pack abs.

It’s unfair, ya know? That’s how society is nowadays. You just have to learn to accept it. Yes, I too get some flak and some backlash for wanting to show off my physique but all successful bodybuilders go through it too. I don’t know why we get so much flak and negativity for wanting to show off after busting our asses for years of hard work.

I think a big part of the reason people don’t want to see muscular bodies is ’cause jealousy is a major part of that, absolutely. There’s that word again ’cause it’s gotta be jealousy. I think it’s because some people want the physique we have and they don’t have that yet. So instead of treating us like heroes, they treat the fat asses trying to lose weight heroes than us.

That’s what I don’t like about the bodybuilding world. It’s all the negativity and drama that surrounds it. In my opinion, I think it’s amazing that so many successful bodybuilders wanna show off their hard work ’cause I think it’s wrong to hide it, ya know? That’s just my opinion and I’m sticking with it.

When bodybuilders get a successful ripped and buff physique, gotta be ready for some criticism and some haters ’cause you’re going to get those whether you like it or not. You’re going to get people accusing you of using steroids and blah blah blah blah.

It’s all unfair and wrong. I think we have every right to show off our body ’cause it’s OUR fucking body and not yours so you have no right to tell us what we can and cannot do. This is what bodybuilding is here for… looking great and showing off your hard work.

Anyway, here’s me doing a little bodybuilding posing for fun at a beach in Cape Cod.

Enjoy:

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Couldn’t resist. Had to. Haha…

A post shared by Kev Brock (@kevbrockmusic) on

Kev

Health and Fitness

People who don’t re-rack their weights at public gyms are pieces of shits… oh yes they are!!!

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Yep, people refusing to re-rack their weights at public gyms has been a real problem like a decade or over. It’s a big problem at pretty much all gyms across America and even the rest of the world. People refusing to pick up after themselves is real annoying, I know. At the local gym that I go to in my hometown, it’s the same thing. People refusing to re-rack their weights each time I go.

When they leave weight plates on bars and machines, I don’t say anything ’cause that’s NOT my job but I do go around putting the weights back even if I didn’t use them. I pick up after people all the time. Why do I do this? It’s not only that I like to show respect to a public gym which is what it’s all about but also showing respect to the staff that work there. Sometimes the staff  at the gym are not strong enough to go around picking up 45 lb. weight plates.

At the local gym I go to, there is a guy that works there who goes around picking up after people but he seems to have stopped for some reason and he’s hardly ever around when I’m there anyways. There is a manager/director of the gym but this person is hardly ever around to take care of the place which is ridiculous, in my eyes.

I used to love my local gym that I go to but it’s gone downhill fast. I continue to go ’cause it’s the only gym closer to home so I have no choice but to continue to use it.

People who refuse to re-rack weights just suck and I’m not afraid to say it.

Why do people do it? Well for a lot of reasons… they’re just dumb and not smart, they are egotistical/narcissistic, selfish, etc. I think some people just do it to piss gym goers off on purpose, honestly.

This is a real problem all over and it’s gotta stop.

The reason it’s not a polite thing to do is ’cause it’s a lot of work to remove a bunch of 45 lb. weight plates which is a waste of energy for your workout, ya know? Plus, not everyone in the gym is that strong to lift it.

People in gyms suck in general, though. That’s why I keep to myself and try not to socialize with people in the gym. Just throw my headphones on, don’t make eye contact with people while I’m working out and then I’m good.

I go there to get a good workout in and build muscle and that’s it. I don’t have time for bullshit.

Kev

Health and Fitness

I’m gonna be posting full body progress bodybuilding photos real soon…

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Just for fun, I decided to take a photo of myself wearing nothing but boxers and doing a bodybuilding pose for the camera. When I saw the pic, I was actually pretty impressed of what I saw. Not being egotistical or arrogant or anything but I really was impressed of what I saw that I decided to throw it on my instagram stories to see what kind of reaction it got. The reaction turned out GOOD and I got a few more instagram followers because of it.

For that reason, I think I’m definitely gonna be posting a lot more bodybuilding progress photos. I’ll be doing full body progress photos. I’ll be showing it all off. However, though, I’m noticing that posing in boxer briefs isn’t gonna do it so sometime this summer I’m going to be ordering a pair of bodybuilding trunks.

Some people may think that what I’m about to do pretty soon is pretty egotistical and arrogant and some are gonna be offended but whatever. After years of hard work in the gym, why hide what you got, ya know? That’s what bodybuilding is here for to begin with. Build muscle, get lean and you can show off your hard work. Why hide it?

I may never compete for the bodybuilding stage but I will show off like that for photos. I want to show it all off… upper body and lower body. I’m getting more chest development and my pecs are improving greatly so I think it’s finally time to do a photo shoot like this. I’ll take a series of pics of me trying to pose like a pro-bodybuilder.

I think it’ll be fun and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of reaction these photos will get.

While I am a full time powerlifter now, I still see myself as more of a bodybuilder, though. I may never be a “Mr. Olympia” but I would like to get that look. That’s what I’m aiming for.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Not doing so good on squats and deadlift lately but killing it on bench… wonder why that is??? Am I plateauing? I could be, not gonna lie…

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I tried maxing out on the big three lifts this week but wasn’t very good again. I’m killing it on bench. My bench numbers are going up as I just smashed a whopping 165 lbs. pr. on bench this week. Not quite at 170 lb. bench yet but I’ll get there in a few weeks. I’m on the road to a 200 lb. bench. Looks like I won’t get to 200 lbs. in time before the Aug. 30th push/pull meet at Albany Strength but I’m still gonna try to get there.

As for squat and deadlift… the squats, I had to go do lighter weights so I can get the correct depth that the USAPL asks for. The right depth for the USAPL is that the upper leg area and crease of the hip needs to be lower than the top of the knee. I hit that depth and it’s very tough. I couldn’t smash a 150 or a 140 lb. squat when I tried so my estimated pr on squats right now is about 135 lbs. I’m gonna take my time and really bring up my squat numbers this summer.

The same goes for deadlift. I still can’t get over 300 lbs. again. I did it once in the past but can’t seem to do it now. I think I’m plateauing on deadlift and I’m going to figure out a way to bust through it. Maybe I keep deadlifting the same weights every week ’cause you don’t want to do that. I gotta keep adding more weight everyweek and mix it up and I will start doing that from now on.

When I train for strength in powerlifting, I do 5 sets of everything on the big three and started training for 1 – 5 reps. I used to start with 8 – 10 reps and go 1 – 5 later in the sets but from now on, I’ve been doing 1 – 5 reps for each set. I feel that I’m getting pretty close to 300 again ’cause a few weeks ago, I smashed a 280 lb. for a double and a 285 lb. for a heavy single. Someday I want to start doing 300 lbs. for more reps and I’m gonna take my time to get there. I can get there this summer if I’m lucky enough. Just gotta find a way to break out of this plateau and I’ll be back on fire before you know it.

Every powerlifter goes through plateaus, even the greatest powerlifters of all time go through ’em. We all have our bad days in the gym and at the powerlifting meets so I’m not mad about it. I’ll find a way to get back on track on deadlift so I can fucking kill it at the push/pull meet in August. At the push/pull meet in August, I’m hoping to smash over 300 lb. so I’m gonna take my time and come up with a plan.

When you “plateau” in the gym, it means you notice a decrease in strength like staying the same or going down. You don’t want that in powerlifting. I want to become a great deadlifter and don’t wanna mess it up.

Kev