Sunday, July 5, 2009

Lower Back & Hamstrings at Gold's Gym, Venice, CA

Again, I was debating after waking up this morning, whether to take another day off from the gym, as my body was still feeling sore and somewhat tight! Another sign that with good rest and nutrition, I could expect to see some gains, even though I'm now 10 weeks out from the WBFF World Finals. In fact, after eating my oatmeal and egg whites, I went back to sleep for another 2 hours. After waking at around 10.30 am I was feeling a little more my normal self, and decided that I was just tired and not suffering from the past workouts - although they could still be felt, believe me!

After showing, and my 2nd meal (canned sardines mixed with a Tbspn of Salsa and 1 tspn of hot sauce, all on a slice of dark toasted rye bread) I put together my supplement stack that I've created for weight training when dieting into my pill box so that I could take when I am half way to the gym for maximum results, as the drive from my home into Venice is about 40 minutes, but can take over an hour if traffic is bad, and once in the gym, the supplements will have faded from providing optimal results.

You can find a full list of my supplements and which ones I take and when on my new fitness website - www.robrichesfitness.com although to give you a quick overview of them, they consisted of:

N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
Co-Enzyme Q10
N-Acetyly L-Glutamine
BCAA's
Norateen Hollywood Body

On the way to the gym I knew I was in for a good workout. I was training with a good friend of mine, Dave Catudal, who has competed in a few similar shows that I have, plus we share much the same attitude to training - do it right, or go home. Also, after a days rest, and with lower back and hamstrings on todays muscle menu - both muscle groups being 'Pull Muscles', in which I seem to be far stronger comparatively than with push exercises, I knew that I would be achieveing some new personal bests, and because of that very approach before even stepping into the gym - I did. In fact, I not only achieved some personal bests, but I smashed them by at least 15%!!

You can view the full breakdown of all my exercises, sets, reps and weights at my Bodyspace by clicking here.

After a relatively short workout (compared to most where I usually have more exercises involved, but was so caught up with talking to different people in the gym, and allowing longer rest times bewteen sets given the heavier weights I was attempting), I walked out of the gym expecting to feel very sore in my lower back and hamstrings, but couldn't wait until a few more sessions like over the following weeks, and to be standing on stage a good 5-8 lbs heavier than I ever have been previously, with my condition peaking at somewhere between 4-6%. I knew I was doing everything I possibly could to ensure I gave myself the best chance of winning the world title at the WBFF World Championships!

My work had been done for today.

Thats all for now folks, but stay tuned for even more intense workouts this week, as I attempt to train with different people who motivate and inspire me, at different gyms around LA to keep my motivation high.