Getting Back On Track: DTP Style

Alright, my personal life has been kind of a mess for the past 2 months and everything is kinda over now. But this isn't a blog where people come see me whine, that has been done a couple of times and I think most of you are fed up with it. So now, let's talk about something more serious. My road to recovery, DTP Style.

I have been going to the gym, not as regular but I'm getting there. The frequency is increasing and my motivation level is starting to get back up, bit by bit.
I do not know if it is a blessing in disguise or what but due to the lack of workout sessions and irregular diet (skipping meals and all), I lost like more or less 5lbs so I'm weighing at 170lbs flat but I look leaner, meaner and fuller than I have ever been. Weird...

Anyway, the sessions in the past 2 weeks haven't been very smooth. I didn't seem to lose a lotta strength but my muscle endurance dropped drastically, as well as my cardio. So I have decided, DTP is the way to go. I thought that by punishing myself, both physically and mentally in the gym should be able get my thoughts straight. True enough, it's starting to work.

I have worked on DTP before so I know how brutal it is. Torturing, yes yet very much effective. I kinda worked on my pecs and legs with DTP but kinda cheated with incorporation with other exercises to convince myself that I have done enough.

Today though, I decided that I must go through with the full thing whether I like it or not. OK, since my pecs are still in agony from the workout 3 days ago, I wasn't able to follow exactly how Kris Gethin designed for DTP pecs and backs day. So I added a little twist on my own. My backs have always been lacking, especially endurance. So what I did was agonist super sets standing double-armed dumbbell rows with lats pull down. So rather than doing 10 straight sets, my partner, Hector and I did 8 agonist super sets. So following the Dramatic Transformation Principle, the workout is in a pyramid fashion then invert pyramid sets.

We first warmed up with 3 sets of chin-ups. I know, Big Kris doesn't recommend to warm up since the first 2 sets are light weights with extremely high repetitions but that doesn't mean he isn't encouraging. Anyway, for the first set, we did 30 reps of standing double-armed dumbbell rows then super-setting with 30 reps of lats pull down. Then moved on to 20, 10 and finally 5. Unlike what was shown in the video in the link below, we didn't do 2 sets of 5's, we just did a single super set of 5's:
Kris Gethin's DTP Chest & Back Workout - Bodybuilding.com

After which, when it was time to work back on the invert pyramid portion of the workout, as advised by Kris, we did a slightly varied version of the dumbbell rows. As we pulled the weights up, we pointed our elbows slightly outwards at about 45 degrees to focus a little more on the rhomboids. Now, we have to be careful not to go too wide because that will involve the posterior deltoids. As for the lats pull down, we leaned back so that as we pulled, the bar was almost 90 degrees upwards. That way, the rhomboids are very much more involved as opposed to the usual lats pull down. If you don't get what I mean, check out this article on Flex Lewis on Bodybuilding.com:
Flex Lewis: Old-School Training With New-School Thinking
Scroll down to almost half the page where you see Flex leaning back on his close-grip lats pull down + variation. In our case, it is about the same but we stuck with the wide grip bar.

And as shown on the video in the link above, yes, the final two sets were the most excruciating, especially the last one. I felt like puking and it was so exhausting that I started cursing and yelling for the final 20 reps or so.

It has been like an hour and a half past the end of the session and my lats are already starting to feel the sore. As my lats usually have a DOMS of about 2 days, I don't think it will sore as much tomorrow but as for the day after, I have a feeling I will be handicapped. Serious, all jokes aside, I really do feel that I'm gonna suffer in the next two days.

So tomorrow will be arms day. We will be working in antagonist super set style on cables. I'll try to update my workout tomorrow if I do not have any urgent emails coming my way tomorrow night.

As for now, that's all I've got. Ciao!

Confession

Happy new year everyone. Hope that everybody had a blast on Christmas eve and new years eve.

OK, before I start, I will like to apologize to everyone regarding my absence. For the past 2 weeks, my life was like a roller coaster and not in a very good way.
We Chinese say that if a man is in trouble, there are only 2 reasons: it either concerns money issues or it is about women. In my case, it was one woman. If there is one thing I'm good at, that will be screwing up relationships, or rather, opportunities of having a relationship.
And I am trippin' right now but why? I mean, life goes on right?
Alright, enough of this bullshit, let's get on to the actual topic I wanna get into, confessions of my crimes.

First: guilty pleasure. We who pursue the art of bodybuilding know that there are bound to be guilty pleasures and usually,they are cheat meals. Well, in my case, it is something much worse: alcohol and cigarettes. I know right? This is freaking unbelievable. See, I have never been much of a smoker but I like to burn a stick every now and then, especially while I'm drinking. I used to tell myself that I only smoke when I drink but seriously, everyone knows that that's not the case.
Whenever somebody hands me one, I take it and even without any hesitations. That is just wrong. Just because I told myself that it is just one stick, it's OK but as a matter of fact, it is not. Even if I'm drinking, it still isn't. Those who smokes know that cigarettes and booze go extremely well. But this is not an excuse for my actions.
Then comes the booze. I love to drink. Beer, single malt scotch, cognac, vodka, tequila, almost everything that's good. I do not see much of a problem if you take a sip every now and then but there is something very wrong with my approach: I make it a habit and almost every fortnight, I get trashed. I am a very emotional guy and I am not afraid to admit that. We all know alcohol amplifies emotions at that moment we drink and sometimes when we get agitated or encouraged by the situation, dumb things happen and that was exactly how I got into trouble. It is very clear that I am leading a life that is against the one certain thing I believe in: a healthy lifestyle. No matter the situation, these actions are just not acceptable.
People make new year resolutions and so I tagged along this time but rather than making new year resolutions, I'm making "new life" resolutions:
1. There will be no carbon monoxide getting into my system ever again, whether it is from cigarettes, cigar, shisha or whatever shit they are, they ain't getting anywhere near my system.
2. Never have more than 1 drink within an hour and never have more than 5 drinks in a session. And within 2 weeks, there can never be more than 5 drinking sessions. And this is a promise that in future,there will only be signs of reduction.
These are promises that I am making to myself, not to anyone in particular but to myself. If I can't even hold true to the promises I make to myself, then I don't see any reason why anybody will ever put their faith in me.

Second: drugs. Oh yes, you read that right, it is drugs but I'm not talking about cocaine or whatever that you might be thinking. I'm talking about prescribed drugs, the kind that psychiatrists give you when you're in deep mental bullshit. It was about 2 years ago when I was going through a really hard time in Scotland whilst in university. I got depressed and I found a way to get my hands onto some midazolam. Calling out to Prison Break fans, yeah, it is that same midazolam Mahone was taking. Everyday, I drowned myself into the feeling of sinking into the bottom of a pool while my mind goes blank. Then sometimes when I run outta midazolam, I'll get diazepam which its effect is at the other side of the spectrum. I get angry, insomnia and all that. Kinda like the roid rage we all talk about. And guess what, until a couple of days ago, I thought of getting my hands dirty with some midazolam. Man, WHAT THE FUCK was I thinking!?!?

Third: Lost motivation. I have not been going to the gym, in fact, while in the gym today, if it wasn't for my partner, I wouldn't have worked on my biceps. I'm writing this down but somewhere in me, I still do not have the power to muster enough motivation in me to do anything other then whine about it here. Something is very very wrong with me. I don't get jacked up as I used to, I skip meals to the state that I get severe gastric pains, I drowned myself in my work that I lose track of what I'm supposed to be doing, etc. My mind is just floating around and that's crazy. Every morning when I wake up, rather than the usual blank mind, this same face just pop right into my mind. I know, here comes the bitchin' but what else can I do? I ain't no believer of God, I don't go to church. There isn't any priest for me to confess to, so you guys have gotta be my ears. You're the best I got right now.

Last but not least, to the one person that erm, I mean you know who you are. Whatever I told you that evening, I meant them. I'm a nice guy and you know that. I mean, come on, look at me, I'm a nice. Anyway, yeah, you said apology accepted but I am not at all convinced. If you see this, I think we need to talk, in a cafeteria, drinking coffee or tea. If there is one thing I have learnt from all the mistakes I have made, it is that problems have to confronted and solved, not hang up the phone and run away from it. By no means that I am blaming you, it's just my view how we should've solved it because waiting for your call is seriously driving me mad.

Well, there you have it, all the crimes that I have done. Upon reading this, if you have doubts in even reading what I have or know about bodybuilding or fitness, please, reserve that benefit of doubt. I need it because I'm not perfect and there are so much more I have to learn and not just in the art of bodybuilding but also life. I am only 23 right now so what do I know about life? To be honest, nothing. My pain is probably like a mosquito sting to an 8 year African kid going through a war right now. Yeah, that sentence I just wrote there just made me feel like a pile of shit. How the hell do I even compare myself to people who are actually going through misery and pain. I talk about sacrifice and hard work whenever I go to the gym but apparently, I don't know what the hell I was talking about. I pride myself as being an honest man and people can always tell the difference when I lie. But there is someone I have been lying to this whole time and being very good at that: myself. There is no greater deception than that. If I see any changes in me in the future, I must start by being honest to myself and learn how to appreciate who I am. I hope this inspire you in some way and if there is anything anybody wanna say about the shit that I have done, please, shoot me down. I need to learn.

Thanks.

Dorian's HIT Day 1 - Pecs & Bi's

So after slacking off for so long, I've decided that mss is my main priority right now. So what better way than good old Dorian's HIT?

For those who do not know what HIT is, it is a bodybuilding principal that was first presented to the world by non other than Arnold Schwarzenegger's rival then, the late Mike Mentzer.
It is a training principal that focuses on stimulating muscle fibres by breaking them through short and concise but extremely heavy weights as opposed to Arnold's training philosophy that requires one to spend 5-6 hours a day in the gym for 5-6 days a week.

So the legenday 6 times Mr. Olympia, the Mr. Intensity himself, Dorain Yates believed in Mike Mentzer's training philosophy and trained with him. Dorain's HIT is a variation from the original sheet made by Mentzer. He focuses on a couple of warm-up sets, typically 1 to 2 sets and only 1 working set where that particular set goes very heavy weights. Depending on the nature of the exercise, we are looking at a rep range of 6-8 and 8-10 reps on each working set. Regardless of the exercise, there will be no more than 3 sets (warm-up sets & working sets) in each exercise. Anything more, Yates calls it "conventional bodybuilding"

And back, today was pecs and biceps day. As usual, you always pick the larger muscle group to work on first, so pecs it is. And I was joined by one of my best friend and training buddy, Hector whose photo will not be revealed as he is known to be cuter than me as accordance to the blind chicks around us. Oops! Just joking.

Anyway, after thoroughly warming up our rotator cuff, we head straight on to my personal favourite for pecs, decline barbell bench press:
Warm-up Sets:
10 x 145lbs
8 x 165 lbs
Working Set:
6 x 210 lbs
dropped - 3 x 165 lbs

I know, I know, that's way lighter than I should be lifting at my weight.
But hey, I just recovered so give me a little break here.
These numbers HAVE to improve and they WILL IMPROVE.

Then we head on to incline dumbell press at 30⁰:
Warm-up Set:
12 x 45 lbs (each hand)
Working Set:
9 x 60 lbs (each hand)

Third, we got to work on the pec deck flyes but this is the kind I do not like. The kind that is not from Hammer Strength but from Technogym. In fact, all equipments in my home gym are Technogym crap. What the hell?:
Warm-up Set:
12 x 70 lbs
Working Set:
10 x 100 lbs

Last but not least, we work on the ever popular high-pulley cable crossovers:
Warm-up sets:
10 x 20 lbs (each hand)
10 x 20 lbs (each hand)
Working Set:
10 x 30 lbs (each hand)

So, done with pecs, took about 3 minutes rest, we head on to biceps.

For biceps, we did only two exercises but we were spent after that.

First stop, seated concentration curls:
Warm-up Sets:
10 x 20 lbs (each hand)
10 x 20 lbs (each hand)
Working Set:
10 x 25 lbs (each hand)

Second and already the last exercise for biceps, standing straight barbell curls:
Warm-up Set:
10 x 65 lbs
Working Set:
10 x 100 lbs
negatives via cheat reps - 3 x 100 lbs.

Then we finished off our session with 3 sets of exercise for abs:
Tri-sets:
20 x crunches, 20 x raised-legged crunches & 20 x double crunches

We sat down for about ten seconds when I heard a dupstep remix of the new Avicii vs Nicky Romero song so I went dashing towards the front desk to find out source, only to be disappointed.
Anyway, we rested for a while till we stopped panting and I had my 1 serving of Cell-Tech and went back home for a serving of ON Caseine Protein. After bitching around Facebook, here I am.

So that's all for tonight, see you next time folks.

Back to Work

So today is the day I'm back in the gym again. Like I mentioned last time, I lost over 6lbs over the weekend due to a serious illness. I felt better so I went back to the gym today.

During the day, I kept pondering whether what I should do in the gym. Should I be lifting heavy? Should I be doing cardio or should I just do a full body workout? Then I realized, I should wait till I step into the gym and I'll know because my instincts have never lied to me.

So I decided to start of with some very light deadlifts to warm up my lower back and hamstrings:
2 x 10 @ 120lbs
Like I said, it was really light.
I maintained that weight and did some power cleans:
3 x 5 @ 120lbs

Wide-grip chin-ups:
3 x 6 @ body weight

Hyperextensions:
3 x 10 @ body weight (Super slow negatives)

Parallel-grip chin-ups:
3 x 6 @ body weight

Good mornings:
3 x 10 @ 40lbs (Bar only, super slow negatives)

Reverse-grip chin-ups:
3 x 6 @ body weight

I then went on to work on some abs:
Tri-sets (3 x 20 each):
1. Crunches
2. Raised-legged crunches
3. Double crunches
And I finished up with 3 x 15 of leg raises.

So that's about it. Like I said, this is just a light workout but because of not being fully recovered and trust me, with just these, they are already enough to suck the life outta me. But hey, when a man's gotta rest, a man's gotta rest.

Oh and yeah, I thought of rather than doing things randomly, I will begin to stick to certain plans like I used to do but this time, probably with a twist and I'll stay onto a single plan for a longer period. So the title will tell you what plan I'm roughly in with which week and day I'm into the plan.

So that's all for now. See ya next time.

I'm Coming Back

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything for more than a year but that doesn't mean I didn't do anything. I have gained quite a bit of mass but recently, I find myself a little aimless as I go through the workouts in the gym. It's not that I have no idea what I was doing, I wasn't as determined as before.
So, as advised by one of my biggest inspirations in bodybuilding, Big Kris, I've decided to come back to this blog. Oh yeah!

I'm gonna stick with what I have been doing last time, write down as much details of my training, feelings and thoughts of every workout and also certain bodybuilding articles that draws my attention.

Today's a rest day and it is only because that I have been very sick for the past 2 days. I have lost over 6 lbs for that. But what made my day was that I received a signed autograph by my favourite bodybuilder and current Mr. Olympia, Phil "The Gift" Heath! Check it out!

Yeah man, get jealous people.

So this motivates me even more. I can't even describe that thrill in me. So fellows, be sure to stay tuned and I will update as much onto this blog as I possibly can. As for now, ciao!

Traditional Cardio VS High Intensity Interval Training

Hi people, today, I decided to talk about the controversial way of losing fats, cardio against the more and more popular H.I.I.T. (High Intensity Interval Training). Why am I writing this article? Well, it's a tribute to my good friend in her preparation for her first stage appearance!

Well, I ain't no expert but I do know a thing or two when it comes to fat loss. It requires one to change one's entire lifestyle and not just the workout methodology. It also involves diet (the most important of all) and many other things. But we're now focusing only on the training methods here.

Before we start comparing both methods, let's first take a look at what is cardio all about. So what is cardio? Well, cardio is a form of low intensity aerobic exercise which is performed for a long period of time in one single session.

And when we talk about cardio exercises, usually the first few things that pops in our minds are running 40 minutes on a treadmill, a bike or on an elliptical machine. Hmm...This sounds pretty gruesome...Who would wanna run on a treadmill looking at the sweaty face of a 65 years old man for 40 minutes? Well, tell you something you already know, the mass public actually force their own body to do that everyday in order to help reduce the fats within their body.

So we're saying that cardio is the best way to reduce fats within the body huh...Is it? Let's take a look at the pros and cons of extensive cardiovascular exercises:

Pros:

• Improved cardiovascular functioning
• Increased maximal cardiac output
• Increased stroke volume
• Reduced resting heart rate
• Reduced heart rate during submaximal activity/exercise
• Reduced blood pressure
• Increased capillary density and circulation (increases oxygen and nutrient delivery to cells)
• Increased mitochondrial density
• Increased cardiovascular endurance
• Improved aerobic performance

Yay! Cardio seems good for the body...But wait...what about losing fats? It's not mentioned above...

It is widely assumed that low intensity exercise (cardio in this case) emphasizes on fat usage while high intensity (H.I.I.T. in particular over here) exercises emphasizes on carbs usage. Well, I can safely tell you that this assumption is very wrong. Think about it, how many aerobics instructors have you seen actually have really lean, muscular bodies?


Now let's take a look into H.I.I.T.

Assuming no fats were spent during a H.I.I.T. session, our bodies' glycogen level drops, forcing our body to focus on the fats that we have in our body for energy to function for the rest of the day.

Now what if we replenish our with carbs right after the training session? Will that cause our glycogen level to rise and result in deficiency to burn fats? The answer is no, let me tell you why.


Studies have shown that even after replenishing carbs into the body after an H.I.I.T. session, due to the fact that our bodies still need to function properly while glycogen is being replenished, our bodies will continue to burn fats.

During an H.I.I.T. session, our bodies induces metabolic acidosis which results in depleting our first two energy systems which are the ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) and the Glycolytic systems. And during our rest intervals, our bodies become very active in burning those fats at a high rate. And even when that period is over, energy is still being used but the glycolytic system picks up.

And when you're doing H.I.I.T., muscle fibres are broken down to build more lean mass in your body. Now think about it, simple logic. When your body is packed with muscles, your body is constantly hungry for energy to feed those muscle fibres. And if your body has an abundant amount of fats, what's gonna happen? It's obvious isn't it?


I don't think there's a need to go on any further. After that much being said, I believe you'll be able to decide for yourself, which method is a better way to burn those stubborn fats that you've been longing to shed off all these while.

FST-7: Officially The Favourite

Like I said, I won't be blogging about everything now due to my exams. However, I still hit the gym hard despite the busy schedule (actually there isn't a schedule, the plan was just to hide my face under books).

Tell you guys something really shitty, my cell phone and a whole lotta cash were stolen from the bag I left in the gym locker. DAMN! I should've gotten myself a padlock or something to lock it up. GOD DAMN IT!!!

Alright, I've been using the FST-7 program for almost 2 weeks now and it is by far, the best program I've used. Yes, you heard me, THE BEST!

With only 45~60 seconds rest in between sets, the rest time is minimum and while I was hitting 3~4 working sets, I wasn't able to go as heavy as I did with Dorian's HIT. Though not as heavy, I reached multiple failures for quite a number of exercises.


For most parts, I roughly follow what's on the sample workout designed by Hany Rambod but there are some parts where I just do it according to my own liking. As far as I'm concerned, as long as I understand the concept and idea behind the program, I can alter the exercises to suit my liking as long as I follow the same principle. So the important pointers in this program are:

1st exercise (F-portion) is usually a compound exercise that helps promote blood flow to the fascia of the muscles and break up the muscle fibre with heavy weight, i.e., barbell bench press, barbell military press, etc.

2nd exercise (S-portion)  is a stretching exercises which allows the fascia of the muscles to stretch and allow more room for the blood to flow in and also elongating the muscles, i.e., dumbbell flyes, leg extensions, etc.

3rd exercise (T-portion) is also a compound exercise but the movement of this exercise requires the lifter to squeeze at full contraction and usually have a better ROM than the exercise in the F-portion, i.e., dumbbell bench press, bench dips, etc.

4th exercise (7-portion) is an isolation exercise. Isolation exercises are usually much more difficult to execute but much safer in more occasion. Sometimes compound exercises that hits the targeted muscles a lot are also accepted for this portion, such as leg presses, barbell curls, etc. The high sets, low repetitions exercises push the muscles to failure with mid-heavy weight and promote blood flow into the muscles, creating an incredible pump to the muscles at the same time, i.e., cable crossovers, cable pullovers, etc.

And do note that biceps do not have a T-portion, as if it is included, it'll lead to overtraining. Small muscle groups such as rear delts and calves do not have both T & S-portion too.

I've written a lot and I don't I wanna bore you guys by going through every single detail of my workouts like I usually do (I don't remember them anyway). However, I'll be updating the blog soon with a sample workout I use for my FST-7 training. I'll also write down some of the obstacles I faced while doing them, etc. Don't worry, I'll definitely gonna change my blogging style to make sure not to bore you guys.

So for now, CIAOS!