Dec. Photo Call Out


And the obligatory “most muscular” pose or whatever the hell they call it. This is also from just a couple days ago. This is me at 6’1" and about 195-200 lbs, depending on whether or not I’ve taken a shit yet. I don’t really track my progress based on size since I only lift to failure if I’m going for a 1RM and I rarely ever chase a pump or anything like that.

I mostly like to keep things simple. I pretty much just warmup with some foam-rolling and mobility work, do some box jumps and a few medicine ball slams/throws, then warm up to a heavy single on snatches, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% of my 1RM for that day, warm up to a heavy single on front squats, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% (always based on how I feel that day; sometimes I might perform 5 sets of 1 at 275, other days I might only do a couple singles at 255) and then go home.

The next day I do the exact same workout, except that I perform power snatches from a hang instead of the full snatch movement off the floor. The day after that I perform some explosive sets of push presses, working up to the most weight I can accelerate through the whole motion for 3 reps, then waveload for one, two or three waves (again, based on how I feel that day). Then I do the same thing for incline and flat bench press and finish out with some light face pulls (usually about 50-60 reps), some chins (anywhere from 25-50 reps total) and one set of Kroc rows with 105 dbs for as many reps as possible, usually around 25 reps or so.

Then I do the same thing as the first two days, except that I substitute cleans for snatches and deadlifts for front squats on the first day and on the second day I perform power cleans from a hang and then perform heavy front squats.

The day after power clean day I usually just perform a few sets of 4 for box jumps or depth jumps and then the same for medicine ball slams and plyometric pushups. When the weather is nice I go for a mt bike ride instead.

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
And the obligatory “most muscular” pose or whatever the hell they call it. This is also from just a couple days ago. This is me at 6’1" and about 195-200 lbs, depending on whether or not I’ve taken a shit yet. I don’t really track my progress based on size since I only lift to failure if I’m going for a 1RM and I rarely ever chase a pump or anything like that.

I mostly like to keep things simple. I pretty much just warmup with some foam-rolling and mobility work, do some box jumps and a few medicine ball slams/throws, then warm up to a heavy single on snatches, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% of my 1RM for that day, warm up to a heavy single on front squats, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% (always based on how I feel that day; sometimes I might perform 5 sets of 1 at 275, other days I might only do a couple singles at 255) and then go home.

The next day I do the exact same workout, except that I perform power snatches from a hang instead of the full snatch movement off the floor. The day after that I perform some explosive sets of push presses, working up to the most weight I can accelerate through the whole motion for 3 reps, then waveload for one, two or three waves (again, based on how I feel that day). Then I do the same thing for incline and flat bench press and finish out with some light face pulls (usually about 50-60 reps), some chins (anywhere from 25-50 reps total) and one set of Kroc rows with 105 dbs for as many reps as possible, usually around 25 reps or so.

Then I do the same thing as the first two days, except that I substitute cleans for snatches and deadlifts for front squats on the first day and on the second day I perform power cleans from a hang and then perform heavy front squats.

The day after power clean day I usually just perform a few sets of 4 for box jumps or depth jumps and then the same for medicine ball slams and plyometric pushups. When the weather is nice I go for a mt bike ride instead.[/quote]

Haha, I don’t know why, but you look pretty much exactly like I imagined you looked like.

Good to see you’re more than just a gigantic sentient ego…I’m joking, I’m joking.

Good work. You look good, dude, seriously. Good traps, rhomboids, and delts. Bring up your chest and lats a bit more and you’ll have a very balanced package.

Also, once you get used to that Mac Book Pro, you’ll never want to go back to a PC again. I just got my first one (the 15" new one) a bit over a month ago, am now used to it, and I feel the same way about it I felt about my first iPhone after switching from a basic cell. I couldn’t imagine how I’d lived without it up till then. Get those track pad gestures down and you’ll be sailing.


Here’s one more of me. From this week. Resized the photo so hopefully it shows up normal looking this time.

Bah. Looks exactly the same. Wtf.

Posted in the under 200 thread already.

Starting to see abs while relaxed. Feeling pretty awesome.

@ Cortes:

Yeah, my chest has always been a weak point for me. I think it’s partly genetics or whatever and it’s also because I’ve completely wrecked my right shoulder several times, so I’ve had to back way off on pressing from time to time. I was a pitcher in college and had some rotator cuff/labrum issues that have since been seriously exacerbated by a few really bad crashes on my mt. bike the last couple years. It’s been almost a year since my last bad crash, knock on wood, and now it’s healthy enough for me to even do heavy snatches. Which isn’t very heavy at this point at all, partially due to shoulder immobility and partially due to the fact that my technique in the full snatch is pretty lacking.

Lat width is another issue. Lat thickness is fine at this point since I’m doing a lot of pulling with the snatches, cleans and deadliest. But again, shoulder issues make it tough for me to do wide-grip pull-ups sometimes. Actually, I don’t really care that much about aesthetic symmetry and all that since I pretty much just lift for performance. I can’t remember the last time I did any direct arm work, for instance. I’ll go hard as shit on my abs at the end of every workout for a week every 5-7 weeks or so, but for the most part I just lift for explosiveness and power.

I took some time off from lifting this summer because the local gym was going through some renovations and even though I have a squat rack and bench and all that shit in my garage, it’s about 100 degrees every day in the summer where I lift and it usually doesn’t drop below 90 until well after 9 or 10 at night. It just saps my motivation, which is no excuse but fuck, that’s hot weather to work out in every day.

So I decided to start running 500mg a week of cypionate, but I ended up stopping after just a couple weeks, which is fucking stupid. But as a teacher, this is a busy time of the year for me, and with the holidays approaching and me having to do some traveling later this month it just wasn’t a good time for me to start a cycle since I haven’t had the time to work out as frequently as I should be in order to maximize my investment. I’ve never run anything before, aside from three weeks of Anadrol 50 while recovering from my first shoulder separation, so I figure if I’m going to do so I want to be able to go balls to the wall. I’ve got about 8500mg of the cyp left so I think sometime next month I’ll restart.

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
@ Cortes:

Yeah, my chest has always been a weak point for me. I think it’s partly genetics or whatever and it’s also because I’ve completely wrecked my right shoulder several times, so I’ve had to back way off on pressing from time to time. I was a pitcher in college and had some rotator cuff/labrum issues that have since been seriously exacerbated by a few really bad crashes on my mt. bike the last couple years. It’s been almost a year since my last bad crash, knock on wood, and now it’s healthy enough for me to even do heavy snatches. Which isn’t very heavy at this point at all, partially due to shoulder immobility and partially due to the fact that my technique in the full snatch is pretty lacking.

Lat width is another issue. Lat thickness is fine at this point since I’m doing a lot of pulling with the snatches, cleans and deadliest. But again, shoulder issues make it tough for me to do wide-grip pull-ups sometimes. Actually, I don’t really care that much about aesthetic symmetry and all that since I pretty much just lift for performance. I can’t remember the last time I did any direct arm work, for instance. I’ll go hard as shit on my abs at the end of every workout for a week every 5-7 weeks or so, but for the most part I just lift for explosiveness and power.

I took some time off from lifting this summer because the local gym was going through some renovations and even though I have a squat rack and bench and all that shit in my garage, it’s about 100 degrees every day in the summer where I lift and it usually doesn’t drop below 90 until well after 9 or 10 at night. It just saps my motivation, which is no excuse but fuck, that’s hot weather to work out in every day.

So I decided to start running 500mg a week of cypionate, but I ended up stopping after just a couple weeks, which is fucking stupid. But as a teacher, this is a busy time of the year for me, and with the holidays approaching and me having to do some traveling later this month it just wasn’t a good time for me to start a cycle since I haven’t had the time to work out as frequently as I should be in order to maximize my investment. I’ve never run anything before, aside from three weeks of Anadrol 50 while recovering from my first shoulder separation, so I figure if I’m going to do so I want to be able to go balls to the wall. I’ve got about 8500mg of the cyp left so I think sometime next month I’ll restart.[/quote]

Sounds like you’ve done well for yourself despite a bunch of setbacks. Great delts for having had rotator cuff issues.

I can totally sympathize with the 100 degree workouts. That’s my life in summer here and has been for the past 10 years. Probably will be until I just go for it and open my own gym with A/C and real heat in winter.

Certainly have no issues with your last paragraph, either. Just be careful when you do go on that you take it nice and slow on the ramp up and let your body adjust. It will take everything you’ve got NOT to go balls to the wall completely, but you need to make sure your newfound strength doesn’t outstretch old injuries that are still not ready for that kind of stress.

Good luck.

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[/quote]

You’re such a psycho.

@ Cortes:

So wait, are you saying that I would be better off slowly ramping up the dosage when I restart? I figured since cypionate is such a slow-acting ester that I could just start pumping 250mg every 72 hours into my quads or my ass since it will take a while to accumulate or whatever. Are you saying that I should start with lower doses for a couple weeks first? Like tapering in reverse? I was totally obsessed with how I was going to taper off (two week stasis period, followed by four weeks at 125mg per week, followed by a week of 100mg, then 80mg, 60mg, 40mg and then 20mg.) I don’t want to do the whole PCT thing.

Or do you mean I should start lifting slowly and build into more intense workouts? My goal was to lift the way I’ve been lifting but to try to get a second workout in at night whenever possible. I figured those workouts would be used to bring up some lagging areas with some higher rep work for things like my biceps, triceps, calf raises (I literally have never done a calf raise) and some sprint work.

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
And the obligatory “most muscular” pose or whatever the hell they call it. This is also from just a couple days ago. This is me at 6’1" and about 195-200 lbs, depending on whether or not I’ve taken a shit yet. I don’t really track my progress based on size since I only lift to failure if I’m going for a 1RM and I rarely ever chase a pump or anything like that.

I mostly like to keep things simple. I pretty much just warmup with some foam-rolling and mobility work, do some box jumps and a few medicine ball slams/throws, then warm up to a heavy single on snatches, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% of my 1RM for that day, warm up to a heavy single on front squats, perform a few more heavy singles at 90% (always based on how I feel that day; sometimes I might perform 5 sets of 1 at 275, other days I might only do a couple singles at 255) and then go home.

The next day I do the exact same workout, except that I perform power snatches from a hang instead of the full snatch movement off the floor. The day after that I perform some explosive sets of push presses, working up to the most weight I can accelerate through the whole motion for 3 reps, then waveload for one, two or three waves (again, based on how I feel that day). Then I do the same thing for incline and flat bench press and finish out with some light face pulls (usually about 50-60 reps), some chins (anywhere from 25-50 reps total) and one set of Kroc rows with 105 dbs for as many reps as possible, usually around 25 reps or so.

Then I do the same thing as the first two days, except that I substitute cleans for snatches and deadlifts for front squats on the first day and on the second day I perform power cleans from a hang and then perform heavy front squats.

The day after power clean day I usually just perform a few sets of 4 for box jumps or depth jumps and then the same for medicine ball slams and plyometric pushups. When the weather is nice I go for a mt bike ride instead.[/quote]

Not at all the picture i formed of this guy. I figured a sort of mix between a Steadman caricature of Hunter and Krang from TMNT. But, no. You kind of look like that AndrewLive kid.

I think I’m kind of disappointed.

Someone on here recently accused me of not lifting so I figured I should put that shit to rest. Who knows? Maybe when I finally pull five plates off the ground I’ll post a video of it too. Right now I’m pulling 445 off the ground with no straps or back brace/tampon. I hit 475 with straps the other day, but I think if it was in a comp it wouldn’t have counted. I was about 99% locked out and then the bar just popped right out of my right hand and yanked the straps right off my wrists. I do have the added advantage of having long arms and legs, so the mechanical leverage disadvantage that I have while squatting is an advantage when I pull off the ground. Hasn’t seemed to translate to my snatch though. I’m not even going to bother embarrassing myself by telling you guys how much I can snatch, but it isn’t pretty and it isn’t heavy.

A little bit of advice for those who like to pull heavy but experience frequent sciatica. Along with the normal foam-rolling and mobility, try this: Take two old billiard balls and duct tape the shit out of them so that they’re taped together side-by-side. Sit on the ground like you’re going to do some sit-ups and place the balls under your lower back, with each ball resting next to your spine and along your spinae erectors. Make sure they’re all the way down your back at the bottom of your lumbar spine, just above your waistline.

Now perform partial situps moving the balls up the lumbar region by about an inch or so every 4 or 5 reps, then move them back down. I used to have sciatica issues from time to time but since I started doing that shit I haven’t had a single lower back issue at all and I literally try to hit a 1RM on deadlifts every week and I front squat ass-to-grass for a 1RM three times a week.

wtf. i always thought DBCooper was this big black guy. i m disappointz ):

Since I invented the idea of this thread, I thought I better contribute…

At the moment Im in my off-season, so Im taking the opportunity to do something I dont usually do, and that is high volume training. At the moment Im doing the beginners version of German volume training on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. On Tuesday and Thursday I am riding with a road bike group… we go hard for about 40km, although I can only really keep up for about 25km. On Saturday I might go for a slower bike ride myself or maybe for a little swim in the pool.

To my amazement, I thought I would plateau out in the gym pretty quick taking into account the bike riding, although 4 weeks into the program and I am still progressing.

I, theBird.

tweet

[quote]demonthrall wrote:
I won’t kickstart my day without carbs, its not worth it.

[/quote]

Yeah, that took me some time.

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Here’s one more of me. From this week. Resized the photo so hopefully it shows up normal looking this time. [/quote]

You look very dense. Solid and very respectively lean. Good job sir.

feel better about myself today so, here is a shirtless shot.
Posted in my diet thread earlier today.

left somewhere between 246 and 250ish
right today at 214

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Here’s one more of me. From this week. Resized the photo so hopefully it shows up normal looking this time. [/quote]

I didn’t notice this at first because of the angle you took the picture but I’m jealous of your trap shape man

[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
Posted in the under 200 thread already.

Starting to see abs while relaxed. Feeling pretty awesome.[/quote]

looking good no homo, what under 200 thread?

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
@ Cortes:

So wait, are you saying that I would be better off slowly ramping up the dosage when I restart? I figured since cypionate is such a slow-acting ester that I could just start pumping 250mg every 72 hours into my quads or my ass since it will take a while to accumulate or whatever. Are you saying that I should start with lower doses for a couple weeks first? Like tapering in reverse? I was totally obsessed with how I was going to taper off (two week stasis period, followed by four weeks at 125mg per week, followed by a week of 100mg, then 80mg, 60mg, 40mg and then 20mg.) I don’t want to do the whole PCT thing.

Or do you mean I should start lifting slowly and build into more intense workouts? My goal was to lift the way I’ve been lifting but to try to get a second workout in at night whenever possible. I figured those workouts would be used to bring up some lagging areas with some higher rep work for things like my biceps, triceps, calf raises (I literally have never done a calf raise) and some sprint work.[/quote]

I definitely do NOT mean the former. I mean that you will suddenly be stronger than you have ever been before, if you’ve never used, or at least stronger than you’ve been in a long time if you have. So your natural tendency will be to give everything you’ve got to both maximize your cycle and just because you’ve become a man-beast drunk on your own power. So my advice is to go against your inclinations and ramp up your intensity, volume, etc. slowly so you don’t reinjure yourself pushing too hard on connective tissue that is not ready for the extra stress.

As far as the test goes, I recommend shooting 200mg E3D for a nice, even release of hormones that will come out to 600mg/week. Start with a frontload of 1000mg and then commence with the regular cycle on the 3rd day after that.

Don’t bother with the test taper. Just wait two weeks from your last shot and run Nolvadex at 40/40/20/20mg/d for four weeks. If you are running test cyp alone, you will almost certainly not be shut down enough to justify further HPTA suppression with a taper. I would only recommend a test taper for super long cycles or highly suppressive ones that involved 19-nors like tren or deca.

By the way, if they are not injured, working a body part every time you train is a fantastic way to bring up a lagging body part. I did this with my chicken calves and grew them a couple of inches beyond what they’d ever been in a couple of months.

*edited

[quote]paulieserafini wrote:

[quote]Cortes wrote:
Here’s one more of me. From this week. Resized the photo so hopefully it shows up normal looking this time. [/quote]

I didn’t notice this at first because of the angle you took the picture but I’m jealous of your trap shape man[/quote]

Thanks Paulie! Not sure what you have to be jealous of, though, your traps seem to be one of your better body parts. Leaning up good, man!