bigsahm21

It might seem dumb to bail on a journal and weight program after one week. But hear me out.

I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE.

My whole life revolves around athletics. It's something that's been embedded inside of me for as long as I can remember. When I was two years old, I didn't care about the Ninja Turtles, or Winnie the Pooh, or any of that shit. My most prized possession was my Chicago Bulls matching t-shirt and shorts. I noticed a black birthmark on my leg, and promptly asked my mom when the rest of me was going to turn black so I could be like my hero, Michael Jordan.

When I was six, I didn't wake up on Saturday mornings and watch cartoons. I was up at six a.m. to catch the first SportsCenter before heading off to my Little League game, or basketball practice, or both.

I could sit here and recite every youth team I've played on, and our overall record. I could name probably the 50 best college basketball players in the nation, and tell you where most of them went to high school. I've always been a bright kid; I got into some great schools, with quite a few academic scholarship offers, and set my sights on the University of Texas for one reason...the sports management program. I need to be involved someway, somehow.

It's always been more of than an activity or hobby of mine; it's a huge part of how I define myself. The one sport I really have an undying passion for is basketball, but fuck it I'll play anything...and the feeling's only gotten worse.

When basketball ended my senior season in high school, it was a huge blow for me. The real reason I got into weightlifting was to put on weight for hoops, actually; which I did but then promptly lost during the season (I kept a fair bit of strength, though). My point in all of this I guess is that I hate the fact that I can't play anymore, and am asbolutely BORED OUT OF MY FUCKING MIND going to the gym every day just lifting weights and doing cardio...working out to simply to stay in shape or improve my physique. I need to be pushing towards something, always...some goal, some time to hit, SOMETHING. I know that the obvious response hear would be that gaining weight and hitting certain strength/weights/body fats would be a goal to strive for, and in essence that's correct; it's just that's not what drives me, it's not my passion.

I think that's the real reason I've bombed out lately on a bunch of different programs, and while I'll probably bail on this current one was well (which, let's face it, if you saw my journal you'd know it's total bullshit anyways not sure why I went for it.) I just really don't give a fuck about what I'm doing right now. It just doesn't work for me. What am I training for? To get better at training? If weights were my passion that'd be great...but it's not. And it's great to have the rock hard abs and the 6% body fat and the 250lb bench...but that just doesn't motivate me enough in itself to warrant me changing around my lifestyle to accomplish it.

So for the past year, I've had the mindset that I'd eat clean foods, lift weights, and hopefully fill out a little bit. In all honesty I probably wasted all that time because it wasn't a cause that I was willing to totally structure my diet/life around. And I'm the kind of person where I hate doing something half-assed; if I do it I do it full-speed ahead. BB'ing just didn't interest me enough, it didn't seem like enough of a prize for me to strive for.

I tried distance running to get the competitive juices flowing again, but ran into a string of injuries brought upon primarily by my height. And again it just didn't really do it for me.

So now, I have a new goal. I'm going back to the old me and will be pouring all of my efforts into basketball (which I have a newfound motivation for, as I might be transferring to a school back home where I'd have a shot at playing.) I'll be doing a lot of skill work, plyometrics, flexibility, explosiveness, and of course, SUICIDES!! Starting today, with a 30 minute jog, shooting/ballhandling work, and some sprints.

I really think this is the only thing that I would truly enjoy busting my ass training for. And besides, it's something I've really missed.

So anyways this is my new basketball journal. I'll be lifting weights of course still, and I'll have many questions regarding workouts for strength and explosiveness purposes that I'll be firing off of you experts in the training forum.

Tom_B

Good stuff, there's no point in training towards something you don't even want! Train in accordance to what you love to do, no point in doing otherwise!
Hows the stomach holding up today?
PS to answer your question in your previous journal I was doing a 6x a week weight routine, hitting 2 body parts each day. Really high volume/intensity stuff.

bigsahm21

That's the stuff I liked, I saw good gains in my strength/physique that way.

It's okay, went big time last night, this morning, and tonight again, but still a little blocked up...gonna take a senna tablet tonight and keep pumping the prune juice

bigsahm21

Tuesday, May 1st

Okay so basically I'm still doing my push-pull-legs split...except I'm lifting 5 days a week. That's how I like it, that's where I see the best gains. It's unnecessarily high volume (esp combined with my other workouts that are basketball-related) but I do it for two reasons.

A.) I enjoy lifting.
B.) I have a great ability to recover. I make my best strength/mass/physique improvements when I'm on a high volume split.

Morning Workout - Pull

Seated Row-ish (it's hard to explain) Machine in the Basketball weight room
1 x 10 @ 65 pounds on each side
2 x 8 @ 75 pounds on each side
1 x 6 @ 80 pounds on each side

V-grip Lat Pulldowns
1 x 10 @ 100 pounds
1 x 9 @ 110 pounds
1 x 8 @ 115 pounds
1 x 6 @ 120 pounds

WG Pullups (assisted - drop sets)
1 x 6 @ 50 pounds (lats were dead)
2 x 8 @ 70 pounds

Seated Incline Curls
1 x 12 @ 20
1 x 10 @ 22.5
2 x 8 @ 25

CG BB Curls - Drop Sets
1 x 6 @ 65 pounds
1 x 8 @ 55 pounds
2 x 12 @ 45 pounds

BB Shrugs
3 x 10 @ ???? (bar with these big OLY plates on them but the weight had rubbed off.)

so 3 x 10 with a yellow and a red on each side! Haha.

and then later...

Workout (Afternoon) - Basketball Stuff
10 shots, 5 spots around the key (must make 10 from each spot)

Defensive slides - 30s intervals, 1:00 rest x 10

Full court ballhandling (2x full-court each dribble):
- Crossover
- Behind the back
- Through the legs crossover
- Spin dribble
- Inside out
- Inside out to crossover
- Crossover/Crossover
- Behind the back to Crossover

10 free throws - one suicide for everyone I miss (8/10 today, so 2 suicides.)

50 more free throws (43/50).

Basically, what I've been doing is skill work (like today...with a little defensive slides for conditioning) on lifting days, and more plyometric-type stuff on my off days. No off days on this split, which will likely catch up to me in a few weeks, but I'm going to Hawaii for 2 weeks (ahh!!!) on May 19th so that period will be my "unloading" phases. I'll take a whole week off, and then the following week I'll do some BW stuff and some plyometrics. Afterwards, I'll be lifting probably 3x a week and increasing my basketball work.

I'm going to hold off on Olympic lifting until I figure out where I decide where I'm going to college next year. If it's somewhere I could walk on, I'll start it...if it's Texas, I'll probably skip it altogether (I hate it, basically).

Diet

- Oats, eggs, egg whites, flax
- Whole grain bread, PB, Tuna, Broccoli
- PWO shake with soymilk and egg protein (can't have dairy anymore!) with oats/banan/
- Salad w/ grilled chicken, olive oil, and sweet potato.

And then meals 5/6:

- U-Texas Athletics Banquet. I had 4 chicken breast entrees (really good, not sure exactly what), 6 slabs of sirloin steak, potatoes au gratin (sp?), grilled asparagus, dinner rolls, 2 1/2 pieces of chocolate cake, and this fruit tart thing.

It was *amazing* until two minutes after I realized I couldn't stand up straight. I was in serious pain for a long time after but it subsided. Anyways, I haven't cheated in a long time...I'll throw in a little extra cardio tomorrow morning, and be back to normal in a few days. That's one benefit of a really high volume program...your metabolism SKYROCKETS.

Tom_B

Good looking workout! One question though, what are suicides?
I'm the same way, I LOVE high volume training to the point where it's a bit excessive in other people standards .. but just like you I do it because that's what yeilds the best results, and I just love the gym! haha and I hear ya on the metabolism skyrocketing, only prob with that though is your hunger also goes through the roof
Haha sounds like a great meal! My next cheat day is Tuesday, I just can't wait! Going to a food convention in a city that's 45 minutes away .. omg all the cheesecake I'm going to be eating

PS did you ever discover the culprit as to why your face was bloating?

mboylan86

reading the start of this post i thought u were going to say
"screw working out, im gonna eat shite all day and not get off the couch"

bigsahm21

Sick yesterday, no workout.

Tom: nope! haha it just kinda went away this time (comes up once in a while but not as bad as it was.) And suicides are when you do a set of sprints and touch every line. So you start under one basket and do the following:

- Sprint to the free throw line and back
- Half court and back
- Other free throw line and back
- Full court and back

Not tooooo bad, but they can add up if you do a lot of them.

bigsahm21

Sick again yesterday. It was to the point where I was questionable on whether or not I could've lifted, but decided not to because:

a.) It was a scheduled leg day. Fuck that.

(haha, I'm losing my zest for leg workouts because a.) they've gone a bit stale and b) I'm getting plenty of leg work in my plyometric stuff and all the other basketball stuff I'm doing).

and b.) It's finals time right now, I'm not gonna push myself in the weight room and unnecessarily exhaust myself right now.

However I'm feeling fresh as a rose today, so I'll be back in the weight room and on the hardwood later on tonight.

bigsahm21

Basketball Stuff
10 shots 5 spots around the 3 point arc
Mikan drill 100 makes
10 free throws (1 suicide for each that I missed. But fuck that baby I don't miss).
*water*
Plyometrics (I use the Air Alert jumping program, so I'm restarting that).
Free throws until I made 12 in a row. (Took me a little longer than I'd like to admit, my legs were SHOT).


Weights - Push day

DB Bench Press
1 x 10 @ 50
3 x 8 @ 55
1 x 5ish @ 60

OH DB Press
1 x 12 @ 40
1 x 10 @ 42.5
1 x 8 @ 45
2 x 6 @ 47.5

Incline DB Press
1 x 12 @ 40
2 x 8 @ 45
1 x 8 @ 47.5

Chest Fly's
3 x 12 @ 130lbs (so says the machine..)

Front Raises
3 x 9 @ 35 lbs (both arms, 35 lb plate)

Pushdowns
3 x 10 @ 90 (or 45, not really sure. Probably 45)

One-arm DB Skullcrushers
1 X 12 @ 20
1 X 9 @ 25
1 X 6 @ 27.5

I'm out boys and girls.

Tom_B

Good to hear your feeling better! .. workout looks great too! That basketball stuff looks like it'd fun, I love 'circuit' stuff like that.

PS I don't think you've ever given your stats? If so I missed em .. whats your weight/height?

bigsahm21

No workout today, I got waaaay too much to do with finals that has to be done by tomorrow.

Stats:

Height: 6'5"/6'6
Weight: 175
BF%: ???? Abs are good though. I had it tested a few years ago, it was like 7%.
Age: 18

That's really all I know, I don't know about measurements or 1RM's or anything (I don't max)

bigsahm21

Saturday, May 5

Weight stuff:

Pull ups (Bodweight)
2 x 8
1 x 6
1 x 5 9/10 (couldn't quiiiite get it!! I hate pull ups/chin ups, my upper body strength isn't all that great and I've got some long arms).

WG Pulldowns
1 x 12 @ 100 lbs
1 x 10 @ 112.5 lbs
2 x 8 @ 125 lbs

Sated Row (v-grip)
1 x 8 @ weight setting 10
1 x 10 @ weight setting 8
2 x 14 @ weight setting 6

(I like these drop sets!)

DB Rows
1 x 6 @ 55 lbs
1 x 8 @ 50 lbs
1 x 10 @ 45 lbs
1 x 10 @ 40 lbs

(These were pointless, esp right after the seated rows. My lats were shot. I'll change this around next time)

CG BB Curls
3 x 12 @ 50lbs

Reverse Preacher Bar Curls
3 x 6 @ ???? Haha don't remember. I liked these though, never done them before.

Seated Incline Hammer Curls
1 x 12 @ 20 lbs
1 x 10 @ 22.5 lbs
1 x 7 @ 25 lbs


Basketball Work

Legs were SORE from the Plyo's I did yesterday, and just tired overall from the high volume of stuff I've been doing. So I skipped any conditioning type stuff.

10 shots 10 spots around the key
*water*

Ballhandling: There and back trips of various dribbling moves x 2
(If I am going to try to walk on elsewhere, my ballhandling needs to tighten up. I can shoot the lights out but my handle needs some work.)

That was all I had time for, had to get back to the lounge to watch the Jazz vs. Rockets, Go Utah!

Jodi

How's it going with the dairy elimination?

Tom_B

Holy crap, tall guy aren't ya?!
I've never done any maxes myself. I hate chin/pull-ups myself, partly becuase I suck at them! hahaha

bigsahm21

Update:

Haven't seen the gym in a long time...finals week. Long story short, I need a 4.0 this semester (I had all A's going into finals...) to transfer into the business school, because it's extremely competitive, particularly for out of state students. I had a final in all 4 of my classes...the first 3 have gone well, but calculus is on Monday, and that's gonna be the killer. His tests are notoriously difficult (average is less that a 50%...huge curve), and my grade is right at a 90% (with curve)...so this will make or break my grade!!!

Anyways, I've been in the bat cave all week, studying my freaking brains out...I'm like delirious and bleary eyed, I caaannnnnooooot wait until this week is over!!!