@kjmont: Yes sir, that’s what I would try at first! And if nothing changes, Id start bumping my calories periworkout, for an increase of 500 calories per day at first.
Monday January 3rd
Hey guys! Finally the holiday season is over!!! Thank god… Now it’s back to business for a 3 week period, than 1 week vacation in Jamaica with the newly acquired girlfriend (a real sweetheart I might add, Im a very lucky man guys!!!), than back to unfinished business!!! My weight as gone back up a bit (258lbs), meat pies, turkey and lots of deserts will do that to you, but it’s back to the diet starting this morning!
Still, Im happy to say that my arm is close to being back to normal, so much so that I’ve decided to do arm specialisation for 3 weeks, see how my body reacts, I’ll keep you posted don’t worry… Im anxious to see how the added volume (still staying around my 70% 1RM and ramping the weight on sets of 8 instead of 3-5) will work on my injured arm.
In the mean time guys stay focus and keep pushing hard!!!
Well the weight gain finally came! I regained the 3 lbs I lost, and gained an additional 5 lbs and am actually somewhat leaner. It interestingly enough came after a pulse fast day. I was feeling pretty crappy from blood sugar issues (type 1 diabetic) and decided to throw in a pulse fast, and the next day my insulin basal rate was cut in half by 50% and gained the 3 lbs back (after upping my fluid intake and pretty big periworkout). Did the same fluid, calorie, and periworkout wise for the following days (and threw in another fast 3 days after the last, and here I am. Thanks for all the help through all of this Alex!
@kjmont: No problem man, Im happy you were able to find the problem and baslt thru it!!!
Monday January 10th
Hey guys! Sorry I’ve been busy lately, new puppy and planning my trip to Jamaica in 11 days kept me away from the computer… Happy to tell you my arm specialisation is going very well, no pain whatsoever, and my strenght keeps improving.
And for all of you who wanted to see pics of me, just click on ‘‘photos’’ and ‘‘rate my physique’’, I’ve posted few of them from varions times in my career, from this year Canadian Nationals to back in 2007 when I was a lightheavyweight. Tell me what you think, and please, I prefer brutally honest than suck up comments!!! lol!
I didn’t realize you had an up-to-date log in here! I really enjoyed watching you, Daryl, and Kevin in the training lab, so I’m definitely going to be following this 
@ashylarryku: Thanks man! I’ll be posting regulary, about my progress and stuff, what Im doing diet and training wise. Thanks again for your interest!!!
Greetings from Roumania, Alex! I’m a big fan of yours. You look amazing and super strong!
Scrubbing to hear I felt really sorry when I saw that you had some biceps-tears, anyway glad that it wasn’t very serious.
I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind. (of cource you’re not obligated to answer any of the questions)
What type of person where you before starting to train (skinny, fatty, muscular, etc.) ?
I get form CT that foundation workouts are done using fatigue loading. Do you (or CT) have some favourite exercise selection or intensity tehniques for biceps (taking away your injury out of the ecuation)?
Keep up the great work!
Hi Alex,
I just came across this thread, great read and interesting to follow. You mentioned trying to deal with the mental aspect of your arm injury, how’s that piece coming along? I had a partial tendon rupture in my left pectoral. The doctor said it was right where it connects into my arm. I started benching again not too long ago and so far I’ve been able to handle CT’s HP Mass program well but I still get nervous everytime I get under the bar to bench. Physically it’s held up but it still feels awkward, makes me nervous.
Best of luck with your '11 training goals!
J
@Gaby 2007: Hey man! First of all, thanks for your interest, Roumania fan is a first for me, but I’ve been lucky enough to work with Roumanian couple times in my life and I can say they’re one of the kindest people I’ve encountered so far!!!
As for your questions, when I was a lot younger, like until the age of 12 or so, I was more fat than muscular, mesomorph near the endomorph point. When tennage years kicked in, I became more and more pure mesomorph, adding muscle to the point were I became a jock, doing and excelling in every sport they’re is. In my late tennage years, around 17 or so, I had an episode of anorexia, so I lost a lot of muscle mass during that time. That’s when I started lifting seriously, gaining back the size I’ve lost, and a lot more!!!
As for bicep work, I normally start with a compound movement, working the hole bicep, then switching to either unilateral, hammer, reverse movements afterwards, trying to work the brachialis. My personnal favorite is the E-Z bar preacher curl, since I lack flexibility in my wrist. Incline dumbell curls, either supinating or hammer style, is also a must. Then maybe some reverse barbell curl, concentrated curl, or high pulley bicep curl to finish. I personnaly love ramping as a training method. It allows you to had volume without stressing too much your nervous system, which when you train twice a day like I am, comes handy!!!
I hope this answer your questions, feel free to ask questions or pass comments whenever you feel like it, it will always be my pleasure!!!
@Jaynick77: I know exactly how you feel man!!! It’s been couple of months now since my operation, and besides direct bicep work, my strenght is pretty much back to 95%, at least physically… But the fear of hearing something pop again is always there, every ache or pain I get scared a bit!
Id say that the fear is going away slowly, but Im sure it will never be back like before, that was the most pain I felt in my life, hands down!!! Lots of warm-up sets, stretching, massages, and a bit of luck is my strategy!!!
Hope everything comes back to normal my friend, or at least close to…
Do you do the pulse feast or are you on another plan?
How does your training look like, can you give an example/extract if you are allowed to do so?
this forum is the first thing i look at when i come to this site. Your posotive attitude and willingness to help is second to none.
Keep up the good work!!!
@Liam: Well to tell you the truth, since Im leaving on Friday morning for Jamaica with my girlfriend, Im trying to lose a couple pounds and tighten things up a bit!!!
My diet right now looks a bit like this:
Meal 1:
-10 egg whites
-1/2 cup oatmeal
-2 scoop Metabolic Drive Low-Carb
Training 1:
-2 scoops MAG-10
-2 scoops ANACONDA
-1 scoop Surge Workout Fuel
Meal 2 (post training):
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Muscle Growth Formula
-2 scoops Surge Recovery
Meal 3:
-350g extra lean ground meat (either beef or austrage or bison)
-green vegetables
-salsa
Training 2:
-2 scoops MAG-10
-2 scoops ANACONDA
-1 scoop Surge Workout Fuel
Meal 4 (post training):
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Muscle Growth Formula
-2 scoops Surge Recovery
Meal 5:
-350g chicken breast
-green vegetables
-low calorie bbq sauce
Meal 6:
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Low-Carb
-3 Flameout, 3 FA3
As for my training, coach Thibaudeau has me and Kevin doing a new training method. So far, it hurts like hell and Im getting incredible pumps!!! I won’t write everything down, but it consist basically of building a pump and creating a blood flow as much as possible in the muscle, stretching the fascia, by doing super high partial reps. Then, you switch to more conventional compound movements, with lower reps, to really tear up the envelop.
I’ll keep you guys posted on my progres, and hopefully you’ll see the results soon enough…were shooting for a strong, balance physique, but also functional, some sort of hybrid between a bodybuilder, a football player, an MMA fighter, a wrestler and a strong man, all blended into one body, mine!!! lol! I can’t wait!!!
And thanks for the kind words, it’s really appreciated!!!
Nice feedcack Alex. BTW, my training partner is also a fan of yours.
Now regarding your kind answers to my (maybe even foolish) questions:
How much volume do you usually do for biceps?
I used to be more HIT orinted last year’s february, but then I started reading CT’s stuff (mostly about overtraining as I was scared of it because I was habin more and more skin-stretches on my biceps and corcobrachialis) and I started doing more volume (like 20-25 sets) and then I began doing ramping (but reduced volume to 16-20 sets); now I (recently) I started following the HP Mass training protocol and did more fatigue work with 10-15 sets for biceps. What are your recommandations?(considerating that my training experience is 2 years - in february)
What kind of work do you do for triceps?
Also do you recommand (like CT) to de-emphasize the eccentric?(looking at biceps work and disregarding the performance muscles)
Sorry for having so many questions, but I would like to hear someones opinion on my question (especially someone that has so much experience like you), and also I have some time to actually think about your answers and my question since I’m sick (since yesterday) and probabilly won’t be abel to train this week.
[quote]Alex Raymond wrote:
@Liam: Well to tell you the truth, since Im leaving on Friday morning for Jamaica with my girlfriend, Im trying to lose a couple pounds and tighten things up a bit!!!
My diet right now looks a bit like this:
Meal 1:
-10 egg whites
-1/2 cup oatmeal
-2 scoop Metabolic Drive Low-Carb
Training 1:
-2 scoops MAG-10
-2 scoops ANACONDA
-1 scoop Surge Workout Fuel
Meal 2 (post training):
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Muscle Growth Formula
-2 scoops Surge Recovery
Meal 3:
-350g extra lean ground meat (either beef or austrage or bison)
-green vegetables
-salsa
Training 2:
-2 scoops MAG-10
-2 scoops ANACONDA
-1 scoop Surge Workout Fuel
Meal 4 (post training):
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Muscle Growth Formula
-2 scoops Surge Recovery
Meal 5:
-350g chicken breast
-green vegetables
-low calorie bbq sauce
Meal 6:
-3 scoops Metabolic Drive Low-Carb
-3 Flameout, 3 FA3
As for my training, coach Thibaudeau has me and Kevin doing a new training method. So far, it hurts like hell and Im getting incredible pumps!!! I won’t write everything down, but it consist basically of building a pump and creating a blood flow as much as possible in the muscle, stretching the fascia, by doing super high partial reps. Then, you switch to more conventional compound movements, with lower reps, to really tear up the envelop.
I’ll keep you guys posted on my progres, and hopefully you’ll see the results soon enough…were shooting for a strong, balance physique, but also functional, some sort of hybrid between a bodybuilder, a football player, an MMA fighter, a wrestler and a strong man, all blended into one body, mine!!! lol! I can’t wait!!!
[/quote]
Did you eat so low carb while you were younger and building your foundation?
Gaby 2700: Well, before my injurie I use to do maybe 20-25 sets, including all my warm-ups (which I count, since it’s still added volume). But since my bicep tear, I obviously cut down on my volume. Since Im normally training 5-6 days a week, twice per day, right after my surgery (maybe a month afterwards), I started to do one workout a week of arm out of 10-12 workouts, doing no more than 12 sets.
Then gradually, I added sets and resistance, while doing chest and back specialization 3 days a week, to indirectly stimulate my biceps with back work. Since things were going so well, I then decided to do a 2 week blitz arm specialization, just to see how it would go, doing bicep 3 workouts a week, with about 15-20 sets each time; mistake, I got sore after a week, so decided to switch back to doing lots of back work instead, just to make sure I don’t tear my tendon again! As for eccentric less training, I love it and think it works wonders on my body, since I train twice a day. That allows me to still add volume, without overstessing the nervous system and impairing my recovery.
As for triceps, since I always do a lot of heavy pushing movements with chest and shoulders, I never go past 12-15 sets, normally with fairly high reps, to prevent any elbow pain or aches.
I hope that answer those questions, don’t be shy man, keep themcoming!!! lol! And say hi to your partner!
@therajraj: Hell no!!! I remember back in my early years, I use to forcefeed myself, downing high calories-sugar shakes, stuffing myself with boat loads of pasta with meat, oatmeal bowls the size of Texas, and drinking olive oil right off the bottle!!!
After a while, even though I became pretty big, around 220lbs or so, I had no defenition whatsoever, so I finally decided to strip down the fat completly, to really see what was underneath all that mass. As it turns out, I had a muscular and pleasing to the eye physique at 195 lbs, maybe around 7% bf. At that point, I swore to myself that no mather how big I went during offseason mode, I would never go back up 12% bf. Later on, that 12% mark became 10%, and to this day I still think the same way!
My current diet is that low carb for my vacation, when I get back I alternate that diet with a higher carb day, to stay pretty lean but still add muscle.
Thanks for taking the time to let us in on what you’re doing, buddy! This new training method CT has you doing sounds pretty exciting! The man is a genius. I’m actually in week 3 of his HP Mass program, and I’m lovin’ it
[quote]Alex Raymond wrote:
@therajraj: Hell no!!! I remember back in my early years, I use to forcefeed myself, downing high calories-sugar shakes, stuffing myself with boat loads of pasta with meat, oatmeal bowls the size of Texas, and drinking olive oil right off the bottle!!!
After a while, even though I became pretty big, around 220lbs or so, I had no defenition whatsoever, so I finally decided to strip down the fat completly, to really see what was underneath all that mass. As it turns out, I had a muscular and pleasing to the eye physique at 195 lbs, maybe around 7% bf. At that point, I swore to myself that no mather how big I went during offseason mode, I would never go back up 12% bf. Later on, that 12% mark became 10%, and to this day I still think the same way!
My current diet is that low carb for my vacation, when I get back I alternate that diet with a higher carb day, to stay pretty lean but still add muscle.[/quote]
Thanks for the input! I bet you miss eating like that haha.