Tag Archives: weightlifting

Health and Fitness, sports

So glad I got into powerlifting training, totally worth it and it’s helping me…

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I’m very happy and thrilled that I got into powerlifting. I used to never want anything to do with barbell training in the past and just wanted to do mostly dumbbell stuff. Now I’m doing a lot of barbell work lately.

Not only that I’m doing barbell work with bench press, squats and deadlifts… I’m starting to do a lot more barbell work with other workouts too. Lately, I’ve been doing arm curls with barbells instead of dumbbells. I’ve been doing seated overhead presses with barbells for shoulders ’cause I like that more. For back workouts, I’m starting to do bent over barbell rows ’cause they help with deadlifts. I’ve also started doing the barbell hip thrust for glutes but I gotta get the form right still.

I used to hate doing “barbell” stuff when I was younger but now I’m doing barbell work like crazy and it’s all paying off. I’m getting “gains” and getting stronger a lot lately. As for the bench press, I used to hate that workout too but now I’m loving it. My chest is beefing up because of it and I’m starting to get the look that I always wanted… a bodybuilder kind of look and I’m getting it. My chest is looking pretty good lately and really starting to shape up the way I want it to look.

A lot of lifters say that Dumbbell presses are more effective than bench press? In my opinion, I think it’s the other way around. I’m liking barbell bench more to be honest with you ’cause the bench is helping me. Those that trash the bench press don’t know what they’re talking about ’cause they are always trashing the best workouts that “work”, I don’t know why.

I have a powerlifting meet coming up at the end of March and I’ve been getting prepared for it. I want to be at my best at this meet and make sure I won’t “miss” any lifts and get “three” white lights on everything. I’m also hoping to really bring up my numbers for this meet so I got plenty of time to work on that still. I also gotta stop losing weight ’cause I’ve been losing some pounds lately and that’s not good for powerlifting. I think it’s time to start bulking up and I’ve already started doing that. When you bulk, you don’t want to eat random things and stuff your face ’cause you’ll just get fat still. You still need to eat healthy but eat more healthy food instead of less and I plan to do just that to bring up some pounds. I’m hoping to become 150 lbs. before the meet, maybe more.

I’m getting stoked for my next meet and I promise I will bring it and put on an even better show than the last two. Again, I don’t really care to win awards when it comes to powerlifitng. It’s all about challenging myself… seeing if I can lift heavier weights than yesterday. That’s what it’s all about, ya know? I’m just doing powerlifting just for fun. It just gives me something to do and it allows me to compete in an actual “sport” since I never played in any sports over the years.

Kev

Health and Fitness, sports

Should transgenders be allowed to compete in powerlifting? No definitely not…

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There’s an interesting debate in the powerlifting community on the internet that blew up this week. The story going around that trans-woman (or man, whatever this person is), JayCee Cooper tried to register for USAPL in hopes of competing in their meets but his registration was denied by USAPL simply because he’s a transgender woman or a man pretending to be a “woman”. Sorry, I’m calling this person what he really is.

Of course, there are some mixed opinions on this. There are some that agree that transgenders shouldn’t be allowed to participate in powerlifting competitions and there are some that think they should be allowed. From w hat I’m seeing, it’s mostly die-hard liberals, feminists and the LGBT community opposing USAPL on banning transgenders.

Predictably, these liberals, feminists and LGBT people are trying all they can to destroy the USAPL’s reputation by accusing them of changing the rules after this Jaycee Cooper complained.

Whenever someone wants to side with USAPL on their decision to ban transgenders, the hardcore left will slam them for it. They tell the truth that competitors should compete in their own genders that they were originally born as, these leftists would attack them and defend the transgenders.

Read these articles to see what’s going on:

http://www.citypages.com/news/powerlifting-federation-doubles-down-on-policy-excluding-trans-women/505092342

http://www.citypages.com/news/minneapolis-powerlifter-told-she-cant-compete-because-shes-trans/505041582

https://www.outsports.com/2019/2/1/18204036/usa-powerlifting-trans-athlete-policy-jaycee-cooper

I think USAPL did a smart move. I’m totally siding with them. Why would you want to have a man pretending to be a woman competing in a powerlifting meet? It’s fuckin’ silly if you ask me. There’s a pretty good reason why there are “men” and “women’s” divisions to keep genders separate. A man in the women’s division lifting way heavier weights than the rest of the women, that would be unfair for the other women in the division and it would make all the male competitors look bad. Seriously, why would you want to see a muscled up men in a women’s singlet, wearing make-up lifting heavier weights than everyone else? A man winning all the top awards in the women’s division would be unfair and it’s totally cheating for sure. That’s why USAPL are against this. They are smart and finally some common sense for once.

If you’re a man pretending to be a woman, that’s fine. That is your business, NOT mine but when you want to come in a powerlifting meet and compete in the women’s division that’s a problem. How silly would it be when most women in the powerlifting meets can only bench like 200 lbs or a little over and then you have a transgender woman benching over 500 lbs?

I really hope the USAPL sticks to their guns and doesn’t cave into the leftist and LGBT community. The LGBT community are going to fight this pretty hard and they already are ’cause there is an online petition going around hoping to get them to lift this ban.

I was thinking about registering to the USAPL pretty soon so I can compete in their local meets myself and I probably will but if they cave to the pc police then I might change my mind. Die-hard leftists want to ruin everything for everyone nowadays.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness, sports

Reasons why you shouldn’t test your 1 rep maxes on the big three lifts each time you hit the gym…

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One biggest mistake I made in powerlifting training is maxing out too often. I was told by another experienced powerlifter that maxing out every week is bad. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on how often you should max out is that you should max out on the big three lifts for once like every 6  – 12 weeks. What powerlifters do is that they train for reps. for a long while and then they’ll pick a p.r. day for the big three lifts sometime later. That’s how they prepare for powerlifting meets.

You don’t want to do a one rep max every week for a few reasons:

  • Could lead to some pretty serious injuries or worse could lead to death.
  • Lifting heavy one rep maxes every week fires up your CNS (Central Nervous System) which isn’t good.
  • Makes you more weaker and more fatigue. If you wonder why your pr’s either have gone down or stays the same each week this is why. You want your pr’s to keep going up, not going down or staying the same.

I’ve been noticing that the reason why my pr’s haven’t been going up is probably ’cause I was maxing out too often… every week I hit the gym. Not good. I’m not going to max out on the big three lifts for a while. I’ll max out again like maybe in a few weeks. For now, I’ll continue to train for strength until I max out again in a few weeks to find out what my pr’s are.

I only hit a 300 lb. deadlift once and I’m hoping to hit that number again. That’s the number that I plan to hit at my next powerlifting meet at Albany Strength at the end of March. If I want to achieve that goal then I need to max out less and less and I plan to do exactly that… right away… starting now. Before that meet at the end of March, I’ll probably only max out the big three lifts once and that it.

I’ve learned how to “peak” and “taper” before a meet. It’s what powerlifters do so they can lose more fatigue before a meet. I want to be at my best at this next meet. Before the next meet, I don’t want to be all beat up and worn out so I’ll probably end up taking a full week off of the gym on meet week so I can be all rested up and ready to go.

I’m hoping to deadlift 300 lbs. or a little more at the next meet. I want to go all in and put on a fucking show so I need to come up with a plan so I can be ready. Uggghh, man I hope I can deadlift 300 lbs. again ’cause when I did it that one time, it felt awesome. I want to pull that lift at the meet so I can impress people and blow people away.

When will I max out and test my pr on the big three lifts again? Probably sometime next month, in the middle of February. After that I’m not gonna max out again until meet day. I want to give myself plenty of time so I can lose fatigue and all that stuff. Be full of energy on meet day and just go in there and smoke it.

I’ve done two powerlifting meets and both of them were a blast. I’m getting excited for the next one too. Powerlifting is a lot of fun and lifting heavy things can get quite addicting. I can see why the sport is getting so popular and the sport keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

To drop bodyfat, all you gotta do is eat less calories, stay away from fatty foods, sugars… do all that, you’ll drop bodyfat in no time…

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Well it seems that my bodyfat has gotten a lot lower lately ’cause I’ve been eating less calories a  lot lately and it seems to be doing the trick. My skin is feeling tighter than ever lately and I’m dying to know what percentage my bodyfat is right now. I’m thinking it must be %10 percent or a little lower than that. I gotta order a bodyfat caliper online and I can find out where it’s at myself.

I continue to eat like 4 or 5 meals a day everyday but I’ve been sticking with mostly low calorie foods. Trying to keep my calorie intake pretty low. I still eat a lot of high protein and low carb stuff, though. I continue to eat a lot of complex carbs too like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. I’ve gotten better with nutrition and trying to educate myself with that.

If I happen to eat bad food for dinner, I won’t overeat and would only eat very little of it. My nutrition has gotten a lot more strict this year. I’ve been staying away from potato chips and bad soups. I’ve been staying away from cookies more (I still like to eat homemade cookies but only in moderation). I do a good job of avoiding simple carbs and other junk foods.

The only junk foods that I only touch are mostly pizza, ice cream and sometimes Chinese food ’cause you gotta have your cheat meals too which I have on the weekends only. You don’t have to avoid all bad foods completely but it’s okay to have that stuff on the weekends only. You gotta have some sugars and bad fats ’cause that actually helps build you muscle and get you bigger quicker. Cheat meals are good for you as long as you only have 1 or 2 cheat days a week, you’ll be fine. I only hog out on the weekends only ’cause I want to bring up a few pounds then I’ll try to lose it during the week.

Some of you may ask, do I keep a log of my meals by writing everything down like my macros and all that shit? I don’t but I should. At least I eat clean most of the time.

I just added rice cakes to my night time snacks ’cause they are very low in calories. I actually like rice cakes.

I just keep my clean nutrition very simple. I don’t do crazy shit like keto diets, plant based only diets, carb cycling, intermittent fasting, etc. I don’t do none of that garbage. I’m not a vegan and proud of it. I love meat and eat meat all the time. I eat a lot of fish, chicken breast and steak and proud of it.

I eat a lot of eggs too and I’m proud of it. I like eating foods from animals and if people don’t like it, that’s tough shit.

I’m doing my best with the nutrition part of fitness. Good eating and weightlifting go hand in hand. If you’re going to lift weights in the gym and not eat right then what’s the fucking point, ya know?

Kev

Health and Fitness

10 gym pet peeves of mine…

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Everybody has gym pet peeves and yes, even I do. I can come up with so many but these ones are the ones that annoy me the most. I don’t think I ever did this list before but if I did, oh well…

Enjoy:

  • People trying to talk with me during my workouts: I don’t really use the gym to socialize. When I’m in the zone and working out, I don’t want to be bothered. Most of the time I’m working out, I have headphones on listening to loud music so I can give people an easy sign that I don’t want to be talked to or be bothered. Yes, people will continue to be rude and want to chat me up anyway by tapping me on the shoulder or something so I can take my headphones off and chat with someone. I don’t want to talk with people during my workouts. I’ll socialize with people before or after my workouts but “during” is a big no no.
  • People who hog equipment: When I need to use a certain piece of equipment, there’s always someone taking forever on it. The squat rack, the deadlift platform and the cable machine are good examples. People take forever on these things, it’s crazy. When they complete one workout on a piece of equipment, they’ll do a different workout on the same thing. So annoying and pisses me off. I just keep doing other workouts while waiting to use this equipment I need to use. I hate equipment hoggers!
  • People giving me unsolicited advice: This happens once in a while. Some know it all comes over and says I’m doing a workout wrong and this person teaches me to do it his/her own way when I know I’m doing it right. This is a problem at the gym for sure.
  • People with bad gym etiquette: There’s a lot of people with bad gym etiquette. People don’t care to put weights back when they’re done, leaving trash behind, leaving benches and other equipment all sweaty, etc. I can go on and on. There are too many people who have no respect for a public and commercial gym. They only care for themselves sadly.
  • A real chatty person who goes around talking to “EVERYONE”: You’ll see this at almost every gym in America. There will always be this very chatty guy or woman just going around talking to everyone even if they’re working out and this person will talk to someone in between their sets. Sadly, some will see using the “gym” as a place to socialize, meet new friends and get to know everyone but in my opinion, the gym isn’t a place to socialize. If you want to socialize go to a coffee house or a bar. The gym is a place to get a good workout in.
  • Watching people doing workouts in bad form: You see this everywhere in gyms. People doing workouts in bad form. It’s a problem at my local gym. I see it every time I go there. Amazing how many people out there are misinformed with working out. Some people do workouts in good form but most people workout in the gym pretty horribly. Amazing.
  • Crappy music being played on the radio: It’s a part of why I bring my own Ipod to the gym so I can listen to my own music. Sometimes my local gym does pick a good radio station like classic rock and metal they sometimes play but my local gym are always playing bad country music, pop and rap music. Sometimes they even crank the radio a bit too loud too. I like my own music.
  • When someone asks me if I’m still using something: Happens all the freakin’ time. I’m using something and then I finish, someone will walk up and ask if I’m still using it. Does it look like I’m still using it if no else is? When I wipe something down and walk away it means I’m done, no need to ask me. Some people would assume I’m super setting on two different workouts but I don’t super set. Fucking people. *sigh*
  • Seeing a group of young kids bench pressing and watching them do it all wrong and sloppy: Sometimes at the local gym I go to, I would see a bunch of young kids. A group of 4 or 5 kids somewhere around 10 – 15 years old getting together to bench press and take turns. They do it in pretty bad form and sloppy, don’t even know what they’re doing. Sometimes I’ll sit there and watch ’em and I worry about them sometimes. I appreciate young kids looking out for each other in bench press but if a young kid that age going to bench press should be accompanied by a full grown adult who knows what he’s doing. Bench press is dangerous for youngsters that age, in my opinion and someday there’s gonna be a freak accident. I know young kids wanna be cool and look tough bench pressing but I don’t like it. Should be accompanied by an adult.
  • Loud weight dropping: Doing deadlifts and slamming the weight down to the floor is okay ’cause you’re doing heavy deadlifts and there’s no way to set it down quietly knowing from my own experience. With dumbbells however is different. Guys dropping heavy dumbbells to the floor loudly and heavily continues to be a problem. Not only that it’s annoying but it’s also very dangerous and could hurt you or someone else. When the dumbbells come down to hit the floor they could hit your leg for sure or worse when someone’s walking by you, you’ll never know that the dumbbell could land on someone’s foot. You could lose your gym membership for that if you hurt someone else. When you finish your set, it’s not that hard to set them down quietly or even better get yourself a spotter when doing dumbbell presses on a bench. I see guys using spotters all the time when dumbbell pressing heavy on the bench. It works. Try it.

There you go. Enjoy.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Finally hit the big 300 as my new p.r. for deadlift… feels great!

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Last week when I maxed out on the 295 lb. deadlift, I took out my lower back pretty good. I didn’t understand how that happened. I didn’t freak out and didn’t panic but kept positive and kept working out throughout the week. When you hurt your back deadlifting, you don’t sit around and do nothing at home. Just keep moving and keep doing your daily activities in life. I was trying to figure out how I did that. Was it my form? No. I figured out what it was that did it. I was doing too many sets and reps before maxing out on 1 rep to test my pr.

Gee, no wonder I had trouble on my pr’s the last couple of weeks on deadlift ’cause I was doing too many sets and reps. Looking at my program, I noticed I was doing a bit too much so from this point on, I’m only going to do 5 sets only and only doing 3 – 5 reps on the heavier ones. I was doing too many sets on deadlift that it was making me more tired and more weaker. I gotta stop doing that from now on.

Now that my lower back is all better and feeling no pain/soreness at all, I decided to try out the 5 sets and 3 – 5 reps method this week. It seemed to work quite well. Earlier today, I pulled a big 300 lbs. p.r. on deadlift (see video above) and it didn’t hurt me that time. So I got it all figured out. I’m realizing now that doing less is more to get more strength and bring your pr’s up quicker. I’m gonna follow that method through bench press and squats as well. Less is more is the trick.

I’ll try not to take out my back like that ever again but don’t worry, I was fine. It was nothing that serious. It was a minor injury but I was still able to walk around and do things. I didn’t bother telling anybody and didn’t go to the doctor ’cause I knew it was going to heal quickly and it did.

Now I’m killing it on the deadlift.

Kev

Health and Fitness

The deadlift, bench and squats maybe the big 3 but so many do ’em in horrible form, it’s very rare when you see people do ’em good…

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I used to never take form and technique seriously when lifting weights but now I do. I take form very seriously now. Every aspect of it, even if it’s the smallest things… gotta do everything right. Yeah, the deadlift, bench press and squats maybe the kings of all workouts but it’s amazing to me that so many people do them wrong.

In this post, I’m going to explain on how people do them wrong. I’ve been going to the gym for years now and I’ve been observing and watching people how they workout. It’s amazing to me that so many do them horribly. I really do believe that so many people are misinformed and not very smart when it comes to working out.

Here are just a few common mistakes I see all the time for all three workouts:

Deadlift:  1) Leaning so far back when locking out. 2) Rounding of the back when lifting barbell off the floor 3) Hips too low as if you’re squatting 4) Deadlifting too close to the bar or too far back 5) Dragging the bar along your shins as you bring it up

Squats: 1) Not squatting down low enough (upper leg area must be lower than the knees, that’s the correct form) 2) Knee cave in as you bring it up 3) Heels come off the floor when trying to lift it up 4) Rounding your back 5) Leaning too far forward and not keeping your chest up where it should be

Bench press: 1) No full range of motion and refusing to bring the bar down to touch your chest (this is where half repping and partial repping comes in) 2) Butt coming off the bench 3) Head coming off the bench 4) Not having your eyes under the bar at the starting position 5) Not keeping your feet flat on the floor (some dudes would just bench with just their toes and heels pointing in the air, you’ve seen it. Some dudes would even bench with their feet planted on the bench which is bad, bad, bad)

There you go.

I’ve learned to perfect my form for deadlift, squats and bench press just by going through two powerlifting meets I did. I’ll be honest, though that my form for deadlift isn’t all the way perfect yet but even I’m still trying to get that down.

The point of this post is that it’s pretty crazy how people do these workouts in the gym pretty terribly. You would only see just a few people in the gym doing them right. I’m sure many guys get injured by doing them terribly too.

Form is a big deal y’all. Injury prevention is pretty important. You do them wrong, you could get injured pretty badly. You could get taken out of weightlifting for a couple of weeks, months or even years… even worse, your weightlifting days could be over for good depending on how bad the injury is.

I’m being very cautious ’cause I don’t want to get injured. Gym safety is important but unfortunately, not many people care about gym safety.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Hit a new personal record on bench at 155 lbs. at the gym today…

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So today on New Year’s Eve, I decided to hit the gym for chest day. Today was a great chest day as I just hit a new personal record on bench press at 155 lbs. today. It was a pretty easy lift too. I wasn’t able to get 155 lbs. for the past couple of weeks but I got it this time. Actually, I got 155 lbs. once a long while back but couldn’t get it again until now. I know I’m getting stronger on bench each week I do it. So I guess, training chest once a week is the trick to get more bench press strength. I’ve also been experimenting with progressive overload method on bench press which is working. Progressive overload, meaning adding more weight each set you do and do less reps each set. It’s been working so I’m going to keep doing that. Getting 155 lbs. p.r. on bench today is a great number to end the year with. This means I could probably get 160 lbs. next week and I’m going to give it a try next time.

I’m loving the bench press. It’s a great workout and I’m definitely feeling my chest beefing up each week. The bench is definitely the best chest exercise and they don’t call the king of all workouts for no reason.

For 2019, I’m hoping to get even bigger numbers on the bench. I’m hoping pretty soon in 2019, I’ll be able to bench 200 lbs. or over and I’m going to take my slow time and not rush to get there. I could probably reach to 200 lbs. next summer. I’m also going to try to get bigger numbers for squats and deadlift in 2019 as well.

Truthfully there are no easy tricks to get stronger on bench, squats and deadlifts. You just keep at it every week and you’ll get stronger the more you lift, lift and lift. That’s all there is to it really.

My gym days will keep going throughout 2019 and will keep the 4 day a week routine going with very little breaks. I’m really enjoying powerlifting training. Gonna keep at it.

Kev

Health and Fitness

New bodybuilding progress pics…

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This is my latest bodybuilding progress. Honestly, I still have a little flab to get rid of but I like what I see. As you can see, I didn’t use any kind of lighting tricks for these photos and just used the sun shining through the window just so you can see that I don’t fake my muscular body.

I’ve already gotten a few guys called me a “beast” after I posted these pics so I guess I am getting bigger in size. Just got to shred away some more bodyfat so I can get even leaner and I can easily do that by eating less and doing more cardio. I’ll have to lessen my calorie intake some ’cause I guess eating more calories is not gonna help. This is my next goal for 2019, though. Try to get lower bodyfat and become leaner. I just got to make my nutrition a lot more strict and I’ve already started doing that. No more eating large meals during dinner ’cause that’ll help. I’ll have to eat lesser egg whites in the morning too. I’ll figure it out.

I already do a lot of cardio, though and will do a lot more of it in 2019. I’ll keep doing cardio everyday throughout the Winter too. I’ve been jump roping a lot more and have been doing burpees more too.

My chest is really improving as you can see, though. That’s because I’ve been doing a lot of dumbbell flies, cable crossovers and more bench pressing. That really helped.

This is what a true natural bodybuilding physique would look like, y’all. All that heavy lifting I’ve been doing really pays off. Like I said, don’t listen to those idiots out there that claim that heavy lifting don’t give you gains.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

This video explains nicely on why I have a pure dislike toward personal trainers and why I refuse to hire one!

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This video is a perfect explanation of why I have a pure dislike toward personal trainers. Between the 10 – 15 years that I’ve been working out in the gym, I never hired a personal trainer. Everything you see me do in the gym was all self-taught. I taught myself everything pretty much. How did I teach myself bodybuilding and weightlifting? Well Arnold’s “Modern Bodybuilding” book pretty much did it for me as that book is the king of workout info. I also learned bodybuilding through some great bodybuilding channels in youtube.

I don’t like personal trainers for various reasons. For one, they act like know it alls… just because they’re “certified personal trainers”, they want to act like big shot know it alls. A lot of them are also hard to take seriously when a lot of personal trainers aren’t in the greatest shape themselves. Same reason this guy explained in the video above.

Another reason I dislike personal trainers is that a lot of them are so conceited and ego-driven. Yeah I know both terms mean the same thing but had to make a point. They act like they are better than people who aren’t certified and that’s one thing that is pissing me off about them. Personal trainers think they own the gym and that’s another reason they piss me off. When they need to use a piece of workout equipment or a machine that you’re using, they’ll have no problem jumping in your set whenever they feel like it and I hate that. You’ve probably seen it too when they need to takeover a workout you’re doing. So they’re a licensed trainer, they feel they can do whatever they want in the gym.

Sure, personal trainers maybe an okay workout partner and motivator but you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a personal trainer and workout partner. When you need a workout partner, all you need is a family member or a friend for free.

When you do need workout advice for whatever reason, you don’t need to get it from a personal trainer. You can get workout advice from “anybody” that works out in the gym. There are plenty of experienced lifters in the gym who do know what they’re doing and are pretty knowledgeable and they aren’t certified trainers — you can get info from them if you want to. Bodybuilders and weightlifters who aren’t certified trainers can be way more smarter and knowledgeable than those who are certified trainers.

Bodybuilding and fitness don’t have to cost much. You can even get into great shape for free. The only reason I pay for a gym membership is ’cause I don’t have a home gym yet. I don’t have room for my own gym equipment here so that’s why I go to a public and commercial gym.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to learn how to workout and learn how to eat right. It doesn’t take much.

I’m my own personal trainer and my own motivator. I’m doing fine doing it all by myself, thank you.

Kev