Today was a good day as I have cycled back to my chest and back day. I came to a realization today as I thought about how I began.
In the process when I began building I felt it was all about me and how great I can be. I would push and push and I eventually got to a physique I was happy with. I continued to go to the gym with this mentality, and pushed harder competing with the people next to me, I needed to...I needed the validation that I was great, it was all about the ego. The more fancy the maneuver, the more weight the more I could rub it in the face of my silent opponent at the gym. I realized this sport can consume you in that manner, but once that was revealed to me, I realized that to be a good body builder you need to take ego out of it.
Today I witnessed the other end, I saw me in someone else. I was doing Paul's program and due to pre-exhausted muscle eventually weights that I would used to consider embarrassing, I was pumping out. As I was working the program as prescribed (Mostly, I modified it a bit) I watched the guy next to me doing squats, squats if done incorrectly with bad form is a danger to the body. He had the bar on his back and squatting down and then jumping up into the air. Here I was doing baby weights next to him on the smith machine, as he risked injury while glancing over at me working out every so often. Me on the other hand following Pauls request to do every rep with perfect form.
He left the gym, and I was feeling pumped not only did I feel I have gotten the best workout I have ever gotten when compared to when I was that guy, I then knew ego has nothing to do with body building. Body building is about building a healthy (Sexy) body that other can aspire to, its not to be competed with but shared. The better I become at my sport the better I can teach and inspire others to do the same. It helps I have a great teacher, so to all those aspiring to your best level of personal fitness, the best way to this is check the ego.
Have a great day and live fit!
The warrior....it's in your blood!
Armour Projects
Friday, 27 July 2012
Friday, 20 July 2012
My favorite day! Chest and Back - and general meal outline
OK so yeah I can go over how tough the work out is blah blah blah, but today was a wicked workout and I'll leave it as that, I feel I can actually go another round, where as legs shoulders ect. When the circuit was done I was done. I love working out chest and getting a wicked pump. I love working out the back as well, I like the cobra look when you do a lat spread. Ever since I saw Bruce Lee do that in a movie I knew I needed some wicked lats. Anyways haha! Not much to say about today's workout. Other then wicked as usual and chances are I might hit it a couple more times before my work day end here at Armour Projects.
OK supplement stack is the same as the last training session, my stack varies a little bit when I'm not doing strength training, although it is only minor variations.
What is on today's menu list?
First thing in the morning I took a BCAA to prevent muscle loss while my stomach was empty, and took the girls (My two dogs) for a morning walk.
Came home and made a protein shake (Rock Solid Rocky Road) before heading out to see Paul to put my body into an anabolic (Build up) state.
Got to the gym and threw down my preworkout stack, and made a size-on intra-workout for during the workout.
finished at the gym and got to the shop and ate a rice cake and made a complete recovery shake.
I have prepared two meals worth of chicken and asparagus for the day while I'm at the shop, and all the meals in between will be shakes and when I get home I'll find something clean I usually surprise myself haha! and before bed I guzzle a scoop of casein.
That's today's meal plan give or take :) Oh and of course the required stuff that is absolutely essential to Paul's meal plan.
Have a great day...
The Warrior....It's in your Blood
Armour Projects
OK supplement stack is the same as the last training session, my stack varies a little bit when I'm not doing strength training, although it is only minor variations.
What is on today's menu list?
First thing in the morning I took a BCAA to prevent muscle loss while my stomach was empty, and took the girls (My two dogs) for a morning walk.
Came home and made a protein shake (Rock Solid Rocky Road) before heading out to see Paul to put my body into an anabolic (Build up) state.
Got to the gym and threw down my preworkout stack, and made a size-on intra-workout for during the workout.
finished at the gym and got to the shop and ate a rice cake and made a complete recovery shake.
I have prepared two meals worth of chicken and asparagus for the day while I'm at the shop, and all the meals in between will be shakes and when I get home I'll find something clean I usually surprise myself haha! and before bed I guzzle a scoop of casein.
That's today's meal plan give or take :) Oh and of course the required stuff that is absolutely essential to Paul's meal plan.
Have a great day...
The Warrior....It's in your Blood
Armour Projects
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Drunk fitness
Today's title is drunk fitness, why? Anyone who has done a killer leg workout will probably know what I am talking about. At various points of the circuit you are finding you feel like your waddling around barely holding yourself up, as I was walking to get some more water I thought of this title haha! That was today's session. I started with abs which I was somewhat aware of the process, although it still gave me a hard time, not as much as before as the motor units in my muscle have probably began to learn the movements. One thing I did quickly learn is that all those days of neglecting my quads was going to show today. Going through a body weight exercise with Paul that targeted the hamstrings, revealed a deep weakness, I hate legs already and I could barely do a single rep with proper form, I could hear Paul egging me on to extend right out and contract right back, and I couldn't help but laugh through the pain as I really did try but for the life of me I couldn't do it. I ended up going through it half ass as I was clearly instructed not to do, but there was just no way I was going to pull off the move perfectly. I carried on to the next workout, again everything required perfect form.
I was always a gym enthusiast just like most people who would stack on massive amounts of weight, and be like "Yeah, I can do that much" and left form out of it. Today as I was pushing out the reps I realized its not about the amount of weight and I've read other body builders use lower weights but absolute perfect form. I now get it, Paul can make the smallest amount of weight feel like your repping out 1000000lbs. haha! talk about getting the most out of your workouts.
I used to think to myself that if you know how to do it why would you need a trainer? Fact is accountability, and especially in fitness half the time you think you know what your doing but your not even close, pro body builders have trainers, and so does Olympic athletes. I want that next level, and can't wait for the next session.
Todays stack pre workout was: Opus, pre-pump, a-bomb, and a creatine cap (These stacks don't help with Pauls workouts haha! but I can probably say I would not make it through his workouts without it.)
Intra-workout supplements: Size-on (Creatine based intra-workout)
Post workout: Whey,Casein, Greens, Omegas, Green tea (Recovery, muscle protection and nutrient replenishing)
The process this time as opposed to when I first started in December of 2010 is much easier due to the fact that I stopped smoking, stopped drinking when I chose fitness as a lifestyle. I am doing my minimum of 6 meals which I have done in the past, I still fight cravings but I'm become accustomed to saying no to those as well. The training is an entirely new level of fitness that I would have never discovered on my own, and I know the price and sacrifices will need to be paid up front just as any opportunity or any objective worthwhile to attain.
Stay tuned and I'll be posting photos of the process very soon. Have a wonderful day and live fit!
I was always a gym enthusiast just like most people who would stack on massive amounts of weight, and be like "Yeah, I can do that much" and left form out of it. Today as I was pushing out the reps I realized its not about the amount of weight and I've read other body builders use lower weights but absolute perfect form. I now get it, Paul can make the smallest amount of weight feel like your repping out 1000000lbs. haha! talk about getting the most out of your workouts.
I used to think to myself that if you know how to do it why would you need a trainer? Fact is accountability, and especially in fitness half the time you think you know what your doing but your not even close, pro body builders have trainers, and so does Olympic athletes. I want that next level, and can't wait for the next session.
Todays stack pre workout was: Opus, pre-pump, a-bomb, and a creatine cap (These stacks don't help with Pauls workouts haha! but I can probably say I would not make it through his workouts without it.)
Intra-workout supplements: Size-on (Creatine based intra-workout)
Post workout: Whey,Casein, Greens, Omegas, Green tea (Recovery, muscle protection and nutrient replenishing)
The process this time as opposed to when I first started in December of 2010 is much easier due to the fact that I stopped smoking, stopped drinking when I chose fitness as a lifestyle. I am doing my minimum of 6 meals which I have done in the past, I still fight cravings but I'm become accustomed to saying no to those as well. The training is an entirely new level of fitness that I would have never discovered on my own, and I know the price and sacrifices will need to be paid up front just as any opportunity or any objective worthwhile to attain.
Stay tuned and I'll be posting photos of the process very soon. Have a wonderful day and live fit!
Monday, 16 July 2012
16/07/2012
Today is Monday after noon and I was so burnt out. I know what is going on as my body is repairing after an extensive workout. I am now on my second day of recovery which I feel is well needed, especially if I am going to burn through an exercise routine like the one I did on the past Saturday.
So why am I training so hard? It has come to a point in my life where I have found a deep passion for something I will not give up on, in fact that is not in my vocabulary when it comes to this topic. I truly love the field of fitness and it all started with a personal transformation, and a fitness competition, I won't get to much into the history but I haven't entered a competition since October of last year. This year I will be doing it again, taking it a step further then I have before.
I recently looked at my current photo of my bodily state, this is my new before photo, I am not nearly as lean as when I competed last year, but I can definitely see the remains of my hard work as the lines of muscles show under the layers of fat.
I have spent nearly two years studying and applying fitness theories and methods like a scientist trying to discover a cure. I have come out of the process and felt quite accomplished as I have managed to achieve a physique I could be proud of and willing to put on stage, all through methods of training, supplementation, and nutrition.
I have continued to train hard as time passed since last October, but now looking at the photos of what I want my next level of fitness to be, these where the guys in the magazines. I wasn't willing to resort to underground drugs to place and being in the industry I have seen alot of people who claim to use it and don't build a good physique anyways. I continued to dig for better methods and new research that came into my hands from documentaries, magazines, books, and so on. My collection seemed to begin to look more like a library than anything else.
It was just recently that I realised I wanted to push deeper into getting further gains so I had to find a mentor. I have always known that mentors was the way to success no matter what it is we are doing. Someone out there has the formula that they discovered long before I will, someone is ten or twenty steps ahead of me and that's who I needed to find. I then looked no further than my network of people I have connected in the past through competing, seminars, and through the names of those people that popped up. I ended up looking to get in contact with a top trainer in Calgary, Paul Anthony with DreamBody, 7 time top trainer of the year for Alberta.
The first day I sat down with him he was a very lively and high energy individual, his charisma would get anyone to befriend him. I got my nutrition plan and supplementation list, and it looked very similar to what I was already doing, but with some very important differences that I wasn't doing which I knew was clearly the difference in why this method would work so much better than the mainstream that I was doing.
I was excited, my new mentor had faith in me and the goal was set, I needed to be at 4% body fat. I was ready to get on board and go full throttle. The upcoming Saturday would be our first day of training, and I was very accustomed to training hard and with a pre workout, creatine, and l-arginine stack there was nothing that could stop me in the gym, so I was ready for whatever Paul was going to dish out, or so I thought.
We started with abs, and the workouts we began with was forcing my body to learn entire new movements, in literally minutes I was already grunting and sweating, as Paul encouraged me to keep up the reps. At this point I was thinking this has got to be the worst of it. We begin to move along to the next workouts and my preworkout was useless, I was drained, tired and I had to keep going. I was down to doing single reps, and my arms wouldn't do one more even though I wanted to. The session continued on right to the end of the circuit just as I described, grunting, grinning, sweating, muscle group after muscle group.
I have never trained in that manner in my life, this made military training look easy, and I never got sore at the gym but I left feeling accomplished and knew I would feel it the next day.
I now know what it means to train like a body builder, and I'm sure this is only scratching the surface, I am excited to find out what the future has in terms of fitness level for me.
I now have to set my own theories aside and let my mentor do his magic. Paul told me in the first meeting that I would wonder why I didn't come to him before, and he was right. I can't wait to see the final outcome.
There is no substitute for a great mentor/teacher to get you to the outcome.
If Armour Projects is where you get the raw material for the forge, Paul Anthony is the blacksmith.
Andy Nghi
Today is Monday after noon and I was so burnt out. I know what is going on as my body is repairing after an extensive workout. I am now on my second day of recovery which I feel is well needed, especially if I am going to burn through an exercise routine like the one I did on the past Saturday.
So why am I training so hard? It has come to a point in my life where I have found a deep passion for something I will not give up on, in fact that is not in my vocabulary when it comes to this topic. I truly love the field of fitness and it all started with a personal transformation, and a fitness competition, I won't get to much into the history but I haven't entered a competition since October of last year. This year I will be doing it again, taking it a step further then I have before.
I recently looked at my current photo of my bodily state, this is my new before photo, I am not nearly as lean as when I competed last year, but I can definitely see the remains of my hard work as the lines of muscles show under the layers of fat.
I have spent nearly two years studying and applying fitness theories and methods like a scientist trying to discover a cure. I have come out of the process and felt quite accomplished as I have managed to achieve a physique I could be proud of and willing to put on stage, all through methods of training, supplementation, and nutrition.
I have continued to train hard as time passed since last October, but now looking at the photos of what I want my next level of fitness to be, these where the guys in the magazines. I wasn't willing to resort to underground drugs to place and being in the industry I have seen alot of people who claim to use it and don't build a good physique anyways. I continued to dig for better methods and new research that came into my hands from documentaries, magazines, books, and so on. My collection seemed to begin to look more like a library than anything else.
It was just recently that I realised I wanted to push deeper into getting further gains so I had to find a mentor. I have always known that mentors was the way to success no matter what it is we are doing. Someone out there has the formula that they discovered long before I will, someone is ten or twenty steps ahead of me and that's who I needed to find. I then looked no further than my network of people I have connected in the past through competing, seminars, and through the names of those people that popped up. I ended up looking to get in contact with a top trainer in Calgary, Paul Anthony with DreamBody, 7 time top trainer of the year for Alberta.
The first day I sat down with him he was a very lively and high energy individual, his charisma would get anyone to befriend him. I got my nutrition plan and supplementation list, and it looked very similar to what I was already doing, but with some very important differences that I wasn't doing which I knew was clearly the difference in why this method would work so much better than the mainstream that I was doing.
I was excited, my new mentor had faith in me and the goal was set, I needed to be at 4% body fat. I was ready to get on board and go full throttle. The upcoming Saturday would be our first day of training, and I was very accustomed to training hard and with a pre workout, creatine, and l-arginine stack there was nothing that could stop me in the gym, so I was ready for whatever Paul was going to dish out, or so I thought.
We started with abs, and the workouts we began with was forcing my body to learn entire new movements, in literally minutes I was already grunting and sweating, as Paul encouraged me to keep up the reps. At this point I was thinking this has got to be the worst of it. We begin to move along to the next workouts and my preworkout was useless, I was drained, tired and I had to keep going. I was down to doing single reps, and my arms wouldn't do one more even though I wanted to. The session continued on right to the end of the circuit just as I described, grunting, grinning, sweating, muscle group after muscle group.
I have never trained in that manner in my life, this made military training look easy, and I never got sore at the gym but I left feeling accomplished and knew I would feel it the next day.
I now know what it means to train like a body builder, and I'm sure this is only scratching the surface, I am excited to find out what the future has in terms of fitness level for me.
I now have to set my own theories aside and let my mentor do his magic. Paul told me in the first meeting that I would wonder why I didn't come to him before, and he was right. I can't wait to see the final outcome.
There is no substitute for a great mentor/teacher to get you to the outcome.
If Armour Projects is where you get the raw material for the forge, Paul Anthony is the blacksmith.
Andy Nghi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)