At the gym this morning doing leg day, I was doing squats on the smith machine and there was this guy doing cable crossovers on the trainer cable machine next to me. Looks to me he was lifting heavy weights on them. There was at one point, he changed the weights to wicked heavy it looks like. The guy got into position to begin his workout and he couldn’t even get the weight up at all. He kept trying and trying and still couldn’t do it. So what does he do? Instead of giving it up and lowering the weight, he steps his foot back to rest it on the metal part on the back of the cable machine for assistance and he was able to do his reps that way. That’s a perfect example of ego-lifting right there. Other men in the gym not being able to lift a weight but they continue to go for it anyways.

I would have filmed that at the gym and post it all to see but I was too busy doing squats on the smith machine. It was funny to see, though.

While most gym members are good people, you will see some meatheads and egos in the gym for sure. There will be meatheads and egos in all gyms you go to. Doesn’t matter how small of a town you’re in. Some meatheads are gonna wanna be showoffs to everybody and be all big shot that they can lift heavier than everyone else.

Go ahead and lift weights you can’t lift. If you dislocate your shoulder, your weight lifting days could be over for good. It is interesting how guys in the gym think accidents won’t happen when they lift too heavy.

Kev

After all this time, I’ve realized I’ve been doing seated calves wrong and I thought I was doing them right. That’s because I’ve been lifting a bit too heavy on them when I didn’t need to. I was trying to figure out a way to get a full contraction on the calves and I found the solution to the problem. Lift lighter weights. When doing standing calves and seated calves, you don’t need to lift heavy weights on those.

Today at the gym I did leg day and I was trying to find the right amount of weight to get a full contraction on the seated calves. I found that 25 lbs. is just right. I got a full contraction on that.

For standing calves, I’ve been doing that on the hack squat machine for a long while but I don’t think I’m going to do standing calves on that anymore ’cause I’m not liking it. I find standing calves more effective on the barbell on the smith machine which I did for about 50 lbs and got a good contraction out of that too.

Throughout the day on leg day, my calves were feeling pretty sore all day long since I got a good contraction of it finally on both the seated and standing. That means I’ll have to do seated and standing calves this way from now on. Lifting pretty light on them. Let me say this again, you don’t need to lift heavy doing calves. Even though I’ve been doing partial reps on calves in the past, I’m sure I got a little growth in the calves but to get even more growth on the calves you need a full contraction.

My calves are sore right now and it feels weird walking around which feels good. That means I’ve worked the calves pretty hard even if I lifted kind of light. Like I said, I’ll lift this way from now on. Standing calves on Smith machine and lifting light in seated calves.

I don’t feel guilty correcting the form in calves workouts ’cause as I said in the past, bodybuilding is a learning experience. We’re all going to make mistakes whether we want to admit it or not. We just got to learn from them and never make the mistakes again. That’s what bodybuilding is all about. That’s okay… nothing to worry about ’cause a lot of people do standing and seated calves wrong, it’s crazy. It’s not our fault though ’cause calves are a pretty hard workout to master and figure out. I think I got it figured out now. I figured out to get the full range of motion in the calves.

There were many other workouts that I had to correct so I’m not worried about it. It’s not a big deal. It’s a good thing to do is to admit you do some workouts wrong and you do your best to correct them. I still wonder if I do my other workouts correctly but I just do whatever gives me a good contraction. To get muscle mass and gains you gotta get a full contraction. Partial reps won’t do much.

Kev

Once in a blue moon, someone will get all worried that I lift kind of heavy and stuff at the gym. When this happens, I just laugh. Just know it alls trying to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing like usual. That’s what you’re supposed to do in bodybuilding. Lift heavy… they don’t call it “bodybuilding” for no reason, right?

Just to correct one misconception though is that some people think I’m a heavy lifter, well I am sort of but not really. I’m NOT a super heavy lifter. I can’t lift 100 lbs. dumbbells yet. The heaviest I can lift dumbbells when doing chest presses is 55 lbs. That’s my personal record so far. For bicep curls, the heaviest I can lift now is 35 lbs. Any lighter than those would feel pretty light for me. I can do dumbbell flies for about 30 – 35 lbs.

For legs, on the leg press machine, my personal record on that so far is about 170 lbs. I’m able to lift heavy on the leg press machine ’cause why? It’s simply because my quads are so strong I believe the quads has the most muscle.

I can lift moderately heavy if that makes sense but I can’t lift super heavy yet. Nothing wrong with lifting heavy as long you can do the rep in full range of motion. Good form is important. Even though I’m able to lift moderately heavy, I’m able to lift each rep in perfect form. You want to feel that muscle contraction when you lift.

I see so many “ego-lifting” in the gym. All the time. Guys that can’t even lift weights that they can’t even lift which explains why many of them lift in bad form. Ya know, I see a lot of men of all ages swinging the arms and body back and forth in order to get the weight up. I don’t do that… at least I try not to. It is okay to cheat on the last rep, though ’cause I do that sometimes.

What I do is that I just find the weight that is right for me and it seems that I can lift a little heavy after all. I won’t lift weights that I can’t lift and neither should other guys but they do it anyways.

Nothing wrong with lifting heavy ’cause if you lift light all the time, you’ll look like a gym sissy. I don’t want to look like a gym sissy, I want to look like a gym alpha male. Workout with intensity and get those gains. Get more strength. I’m able to lift kind of heavy ’cause I’m getting very strong. I can feel it and it feels good. When you got muscles you got to lift heavy so you can prove to other people that you know what you’re doing.

People are really weird and crazy in the fitness industry so you just got to do your best and ignore them — do your thing. Yeah, I’ve been lifting moderately heavy a lot and I haven’t gotten injured at all. That’s because I use good form and full range of motion. As long as you got that, you won’t get injured.

Don’t be a gym sissy and train like a beast. Ya know, train like how a bodybuilder would train.

Kev

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a new workout to add to my arm routine which is called the barbell “upright” row for shoulders. Ya know, ya take a barbell, hold it and raise it up to your chest as you see in the thumbnail in this video. I learned this workout in youtube so I decided to give it a try at the gym.

The workout made me feel weird and a little uncomfortable. This is a workout that you don’t want to lift too heavy on. Each time I did this workout, it made my wrists and hands feel weird. Made my shoulders a little uncomfortable too.

After watching this video, I now understand why this is the worst workout ever in the gym. A lot of people say that bench press, dead-lift and barbell squats are dangerous workouts but actually those are pretty safe. It’s the “upright” row for shoulders that is dangerous. This workout can really mess up your hands and shoulders even worse, you can get injured badly doing this workout. No matter how right you do it, this workout could still hurt you.

So with that being said, I’m going to ditch this workout from my arm day routine completely. I’ll no longer do this workout but it was good to experiment with it a little bit.

The thing is, I’m always looking for new and different workouts to try ’cause it gets boring doing the same things each week. I like to switch my routines up some once in a while. For shoulder workouts, I’ll just continue to do seated dumbbell presses and lateral side raises ’cause I like those a lot more and they are safer to do too.

If you do the “upright” row for shoulders at the gym, I would suggest you stop doing those too. This isn’t a popular workout anyways and I can see why. It’s a brutal workout and dangerous.

Kev

I am noticing that I’m getting very close to getting six pack abs. I’m just about there and I’ve noticed my bodyfat has gotten a little lower. Why? Probably ’cause of all the yoga, cardio and weight training that I’ve been doing a lot lately. All that will help burn fat, yes but the key to burning fat and getting shredded is good nutrition. Eating right will get you a six pack.

How can you tell when you’ve got visible abs? Well when you look in the mirror, your body fat is low and when you can flex your abs that’s when you know you have them. When you’re a fat and obese person, that would take forever to lower body fat percentage but I could probably lower it even more with even better nutrition.

I have gotten even more strict on my meals lately which feels good. Eating more veggies, fruits, high protein meats like fish and chicken breast, dairy products like Lowfat cottage cheese and plain non-fat greek yogurt, etc. I can go on. You also need your healthy carbs which comes from fruits and vegetables. You also need healthy fats like avocado and nuts (preferably, almonds is the best choice for bodybuilders). I’ve also added Natural Peanut Butter to my nutrition ’cause that’s a great source of protein and healthy fats.

As far as ab exercises go like crunches and shit like that, I don’t obsess with ab exercises anymore ’cause I’m already doing plenty of ab exercises like with all the yoga that I do. I also do a lot of planks ’cause I think planks is way better than crunches.

I’m also trying to do a lot more cardio like jump roping, box jumping and running on the treadmill. Doing all sorts of HIIT training too. Yeah, I definitely plan on going for a run outside more and I plan on going for a run tomorrow. weather permitting anyways ’cause it’s supposed to rain, I believe. I also do a lot of biking outside.

How low is my bodyfat percentage now? I’m not sure yet. Haven’t measured it yet. I just gotta get this bodyfat caliper and then I’ll figure it out:

I’ll order one of those sometime soon.

So yeah, I believe I’m getting very close to getting a full six pack which I feel proud. A lot of men in the gym struggle to get that too and it ain’t that hard to get a six pack. I think the reason a lot of people struggle to get a six pack is that they are misinformed about getting one. They do so many crunches and lots of cardio but they still fail to get a six pack. Why? It’s because a lot of other men are still eating junk food and drinking a lot of alcohol. So many guys out there want to lose the pounds but they’ll never admit that they have a horrible nutrition and drinking alcohol is gonna keep them fat.

I used to drink alcohol myself but I had to stop completely when I got into fitness ’cause I know that’s not gonna help burn fat and get those muscle gains.

Kev

One of the things that annoys me in the gym is people coming up to me giving unsolicited advice like telling me if I’m doing certain workouts wrong. I get that once in a blue moon. People telling me I’m doing something wrong when I know I’m doing something right. One thing for you to keep in mind, though that when somebody in the gym comes up to you and says, “You’re doing this workout wrong, you do it this way”… well… chances are that person probably works out in bad form too. Usually when someone accuses you of something, they usually have done the same thing at some point or another. So don’t worry about it when someone comes up to you and say, “Hey buddy, you’re doing it wrong”. Just ignore them and just keep doing things your way, that’s what I do.

Yeah, I remember writing a post about “not” everybody in the gym are egomaniacs and conceited but some people are gonna be. There will be some meatheads in the gym who will think they’re way better than you especially personal trainers, they’re the worst. There will be huge egos in the gym, no doubt.

I’ve seen a lot of ego-lifters in my gym lately. You know what “ego-lifting” is? It’s a thing where bodybuilders try to impress other people in the gym by lifting heavy weights they can’t do. Their ego is so big and they want to look tough that they want to lift heavy weights and they lift in awful form every rep. When you’re lifting in awful form in every rep that means you’re lifting too heavy. Like swinging your body and arms to lift the weight up, doing half repping and all that shit. I’ve seen it all. So once again, when someone accuses you of working out in bad form then chances are they have pretty much done the same thing.

Everybody is guilty of “ego-lifting” — even me. I’ve done it before but no more. No more lifting weights that I can’t handle. I’m not saying that you can’t lift heavy. If you can lift a heavy weight and do it in perfect form, that’s not ego-lifting so as long as you can do it in good form go ahead and lift heavy. I lift heavy in good form in most workouts I do lately so I’m good.

It really is one of my pet peeves of getting unsolicited advice in the gym. Getting advice when you didn’t ask for it.Ya know, in my mind I want to say, “Hey buddy, why don’t you let me decide if I’m doing things wrong or not. It’s not for you to decide”. I wanted to say that out loud but I don’t. Usually when I workout, I usually notice if I’m doing something wrong on my own. I do workouts wrong on some stuff but I immediately corrected them by looking up stuff on the internet. I still need to correct my form in calf raises which I have gotten better at and will get even better at calf raises next week when I do leg day.

I watch other guys in the gym do horrible form all the time but I don’t say anything ’cause I just mind my my own business and just do my thing. That’s what the gym is about. Worrying about what you’re doing and not worry about what others are doing.

I will accept advice in the gym if I ask for it or if I have a workout partner or if someone that works at the gym is teaching me something. I will also accept advice from those who are in damn good shape ’cause like I said in a post before, if someone is in good shape they probably know their stuff and know what they’re talking about.

The gym is a pretty crazy place for sure… people are crazy as fuck in those things. That’s why you gotta go in there and only worry about you. Gym etiquette is just about dead which is sad.

I’ll know when I’m working in good form or not. I don’t really need people telling me. Everybody is guilty of doing workouts in horrible form even the more experience bodybuilders and personal trainers are guilty of it too. If they say they do all their workouts in good form all the time then they’re lying.

I’m not trying to act like I’m better than others ’cause I still do my best to correct my form in all my workouts.

To those of you reading my blog who go to the gym on a regular basis, go to any gym and watch other people workout… chances are you’ll see pretty much a lot of people doing stuff in bad form. We all do it. If you plan on trying to get them to admit that, good luck with that.

Kev