MonStar's Journal: Quest for Strength

[M.J.H.]

Andrea: Hey thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it.

SF: Hmm, I'll have to think about the bands. I really never liked them to be honest. I have seen guys in the gym using them before and they were always such a pain in the a*s to get set up, and the movement to me was so awkward whenever I tried them. I don't we'll see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion bro.

 

[atherjen]

OOooo get some bands! Ive been looking to order some!


you best be happy now too!

 

[M.J.H.]

Jen: Thanks so much for fixing that for me. I am not sure yet about bands. I mean I honestly would rather train without them until I absolutely need them. I have tried them in the past and didn't care for them at all.

 

[M.J.H.]

6-4-2004​

Lower Body 2 (deadlift)

Speed Deadlifts:
365x2, 365x2, 365x2, 365x2, 365x2, 365x2, 365x2, 365x2

Rack Pulls: (bar set just below knees)
135x3, 225x3, 315x2, 405x1, 495x1, 585x1, 635x1!, 675x0, 655x0

Nautilus Lying Leg Curls:
180x6, 180x6, 180x6, 180x6, 180x6, 180x6

Close-Grip Cable Pulldowns:
215x5, 215x5, 215x5, 215x5, 215x5

Pretty good workout today I think. I don't know, honestly my intensity level could have been a notch higher. Whatever. I am somewhat frustrated with my workout today but I guess you win some and you lose some. Started off with 8 sets of 2 in speed deadlifts. And then some conventional rack pulls. Hit 635 from just below my knees. Lockout was pretty strong. Couldn't budge 675, damnit. Moved 655 a few inches, but couldn't lock it out. F*ck.

Lying leg curls were pretty good. Instead of 6 sets of 4 I acidentally did 6 sets of 6, lol. Oh well. Finished up with some CG pulldowns, pretty good lat contractions I think. Overall workout was okay. Nothing to brag about.

Diet:
- MRP + 1% milk
- Gatorade during workout, whey protein postworkout
- 1/2 turkey & cheese sandwich, banana
- 3 pieces BBQ chicken
- Trioplex bar, Lean Body bar
- yogurt drink
- tuna & cheese sub, pear
- 1/2 peanut butter sandwich

Overall honestly today I think my diet was pretty decent. I ate 2 protein bars which had a little sugar in them, but nothing too bad. Was very busy at work running around so I really honestly did not have that much time to worry about being hungry, etc.

Sleep: 7.5 hours.

Weight: 224 lbs. Down a few pounds.

 

[atherjen]

Jen: Thanks so much for fixing that for me. I am not sure yet about bands. I mean I honestly would rather train without them until I absolutely need them. I have tried them in the past and didn't care for them at all.

Welcome.
hmmm well Im still going to get them and give them a whirl. Going to get some chains too. .. but I need to figure a way to get them across the boarder without murderous shipping(95american at elitefts).

Great workout today!! hell I wish I could even dead what your SPEED pull!
nice strength on those reack pulls too!

 

[Rocco32]

Yeah, your speed pull is 65lbs more than my max Racked dead using straps Great w/o. How long do you rest between the speed pulls?

 

[Saturday Fever]

Don't worry about chains unless you workout at home. Talk about a bitch to get from here to there if you haul them to a gym. Nevermind the absolutely hideous looks you get from the staff. Bands, on the other hand, are excellent.

Bands are so great for increasing strength. The tension increases throughout the lift obviously, but now picture the extra resistance during the negative. Those bands want to pull that bar through your chest, or through the floor, etc. It's a huge fight from start to finish. And the end result is nothing but positive.

Plus, you can use bands for so many accessory lifts. Loop a band over the power rack, grab each end and do tricep pushdowns.

Douyble the band up and grab either end and lay on the floor on your back. Pull the band apart until your elbows hit the ground, then extend your arms until the band is stretched across your chest.

Anchor the bands under the bottom of the hyperextension station and hold the other end in your hands or wrap around the bar if you do hypers zercher-style. Your lower back strength will EXPLODE.

 

[AnnaDTX]

hey babe! Glad to see you have another journal suits your needs! Good luck and post more pics k!


more pics, more pics!!!

 

[M.J.H.]

Jen: I'll let you be the guinea pig on this one and see what you think of bands, and then maybe I'll consider ordering them. I really would rather stay completely free of bands and chains and deadlifting and benching suits, etc. For whatever reason I prefer to do everything completely raw. Even though bands are still considered raw, its just something I do not want to resort to unless I have to.

rock: Wow man, between speed pulls? Not long at all. Maybe 60 seconds. Just because I only use 60% of my deadlift 1RM. So the weight never feels heavy at all, I am mainly focusing on bar speed.

SF: You make bands sound so great, I am just not at the point where I am ready to take that step---don't ask me why. I know that it sounds kind of stupid. We'll see what happens. I want to see how much I can pull before I resort to bands, etc. I really really want to hit a 7-plate per side deadlift. I would love to hit that by the end of summer. Damn would that be friggin' awesome. I really need to work on my lockout strength. With the bar lower than knee level I should honestly be able to pull more than 635, even if it is conventional. Whatever, I am going to work on increasing my lockout strength the next few deadlift sessions.

BTW, SF, tomorrow for my Upper2 session I am probably due to my work schedule going to train in my basement. Which means my first exercise (due to my equipment) is probably going to be 3 sets of 20 on flat DB presses. I have been meaning to ask you, what purpose does 3 sets of 20 serve? Thanks.

Anna: Hey there! I havn't heard from you in a while. How are things? Haha, I'll try to get some more pics up in the near future. We'll see what happens. My physique lately hasn't really changed enough to take any new pics, unfortunately. I am going to be starting back up on M1T though, so hopefully I'll start really gaining.

 

[Saturday Fever]

3 sets of 20 with the DBs will exhaust your shoulders real quick and make you do more of the ROM with your triceps. And stronger triceps = stronger lockout. That's the benefit and idea behind it.

Another thing you could do in your basement is grab some heavy DBs and do CAT and follow up with 1 or 2 shoulder lifts since that will hose your triceps.

 

[M.J.H.]

SF: Okay man, thanks for explaining. It actually makes perfect sense to be honest. What kind of exercise were you talking about to do CAT with? I am going to start with flat DB presses, 3 sets of 20. And then maybe a CAT exercise? Did you mean CAT with flat DB presses? Or CAT with a triceps lift? CAT with dips (ouch)? And then follow up with 2 shoulder exercises, since today's Upper2 session is more geared towards the strength off my chest. Thanks man.

 

[M.J.H.]

6-5-2004​

Upper Body 2

Flat DB Presses:
70x20, 70x20, 70x20

Dips:
+45x3, +90x3, +125x2, +150x1, +170x1, +205x1!, +220x0

One-Arm DB Extensions:
40x6, 40x6, 40x6

Seated DB Presses:
CAT: 40x20, 40x12, 40x10, 40x8, 40x8, 40x6, 40x6, 40x6, 40x5, 40x5, 40x5, 40x4, 40x5

DB Lateral Raises:
20x12, 20x12

Friggin' GREAT workout tonight in my basement, holy f*cking sh*t.

Started back up on M1T today, I am not sure that that had anything to do with my workout since I only have 5mg in my system, but I definitely kicked f*cking a*s today. Started off with 3 sets of 20 with the 70's. Not too bad at all. By the 3rd set I am just friggin' worn out. 20-rep sets are definitely tiring. Moved onto dips, wanted to go for a 1RM. Worked up to 205, which I hit for a single. Comes out roughly to a 430 lbs. dip. Not too shabby. Then I tried +220 which I honestly didn't think I got even close to---but after watching the video I took I am get about 3/4's of the way up, surprisingly. I have a video of +205 and +220 if anyone wants to see them. They're dark though, since my digital camera sucks with lighting.

Moved onto 3 sets of DB extensions, not much to say there. And then... my CAT with seated DB presses. OUCH. And when I say ouch, I mean holy sh*t, OUCH. Extremely intense sets of seated DB presses, with minimal rest periods between sets. Probably around 15-20 seconds on average. That's just a guess. I thought I was going to hit 100 reps in 6 sets, easy, with the f*cking 40's! Come to find out in 6 sets I was only up to 64 reps. I knew it was going to be a long haul to 100 reps. But I made it, lol, that's all that counts. Even if it did take 13 friggin' sets. Finished up with light lateral raises, delts were completely trashed.

Diet:
- turkey & cheese sandwich, banana
- turkey & cheese sandwich
- Metrx bar, Balance Gold bar
- 1/2 turkey & cheese sandwich
- MRP + 1% milk
- Gatorade during workout, whey protein postworkout
- breaded chicken, tuna + garden salad, low-carb popsicle

Diet was fairly good today. Tried to keep my sugar intake pretty low. So overall honestly not too bad IMO.

Sleep: 8 hours.

 

[shortstuff]

That workout looks painful for sure!!! Nice job!!!!

 

[Rocco32]

That looks like an awesome w/o. How long have you been lifting for? Those are amazing lb's to me!

 

[atherjen]

Mikster did you send me the vid last nite?

Way to go on getting the 205!! I knew you had it in you!

I cant believe you did CAT for the db presses! madman

 

[M.J.H.]

shortstuff: LOL, that workout honestly was pretty painful. But usually they're tons of fun. CAT is just exrtreme, that's all. I absolutely love it though. Exhausts whatever bodypart I am doing more than any dropset, or anything of the sort.

rock: I have been lifting since I was 12, and now I am 20. Honestly the first few years though I had no clue what I was doing at all. But I was obsessed with it, lol. Read every Flex magazine that came out, etc. Started working out on a regular basis at 12, and never got away from it to this day for more than a few days. I think I went a week without training one time, and that almost killed me. I love it!

Jen: Sorry Jen I'll send you the +205 for 1 and +220 miss videos in a few minutes. I am going to send them both e-mail accounts. Anyway, yeah the CAT for seated DB presses was complete torture. I worked out late last night around 8:30 PM so I am curious to see what kind DOMS I am going to get today.

 

[M.J.H.]

6-6-2004​

Rest

Feel pretty good today. I can't say that I was dying for this rest day, but I know that I need it. 4 days straight of heavy training, especially with all of the 1-3RM's that I do, I think I need to take a day off. Working today from 10-4 and then I am heading to my brother's highschool graduation. Chest and triceps are hurting today. So far my shoulders somehow are not too sore.

Diet:
- MRP + 1% milk + banana
- turkey & cheese sandwich
- 1/2 turkey & cheese sandwich, mixed nuts, pineapple
- beef stew
- tuna sandwich
- whey protein + 1% milk
- chicken stir-fry, broccoli & cheese
- low-carb brownies, 2% milk

LOL, my last meal of the day was pretty much a pig-out feast. I made Atkin's fudge brownie mix or whatever---and damn was it friggin' tasty. Talk about some good sh*t. Ended up eating 3/4's of the entire pan of brownies, lol. It consisted of the mix, an egg, 1/3 cup of oil, and a 1/2 cup of 2% milk. So honestly I really don't think it was THAT bad. A lot of sugar alcohols that messed with my stomach though. In just the mix, without the added ingredients, the entire bag (which I ate about 3/4's of) was 800 calories, 72g of protein, 48g of sugar alcohols, 48g of fiber, and 6g of fat. Like I said, not all that bad. Nowhere near as bad as regular brownies, that's for sure.

Sleep: 6.5 hours. Should have slept more. Oh well.

---Today is my 2nd day of M1T, doing 5mg 2x per day for this first week. Then I am going to bump my dosage to 5mg 3x per day. Looking forward to some intense workouts and some solid gains on cycle.

 

[sftwrngnr]

Hey MonStar,
Awesome workout! Congrats on the 205... HOLY MOLY! I'll be watchin' your progress as you continue with M1T. Currently I'm not taking anything. I'm interested to see how your gains continue to progress. Thus far, I've been happy with my progress, but suspect that I'll need a little more "ooph" to get me to my goals. Did you take a blood test prior to starting so that you can monitor what (if any) impact it has on your liver, etc.?

I look forward to your continuing monster progress!

-Dan

 

[atherjen]

wanted to mention diet is looking improved and better! Keep it up!!!

rest is good everynow and then. save up for tomorrow. weird that your shoulders arent murdered!

 

[M.J.H.]

Dan: Hey, thanks for the post. My first M1T cycle went absolutely great. Workouts were more intense than ever, and I was setting new PR's all over the place. So I would definitely say that it's effective stuff. I'll keep posted what my gains are like this time around, without a doubt. I do not take blood tests, no. Also, your goals are extremely high man! It's nice that you're shooting high but going from 225 to 405 in bench? What kind of time frame are you thinking?

Jen: Thanks for the support. Yeah my diet lately seems to be better, for whatever reason. I am also surprised my shoulders are not killing me.

 

[Monolith]

Damn nice lifts, Mike!

 

[M.J.H.]

Monolith: Thanks so much for the support bro, means a lot.

 

[Sapphire]

Morning Mike!

How are you? Man oh man you are strong! That is some amazing bench!! I can't bench more than 75 pounds right now... but I am shooting for 120 pounds.

 

[BCC]

Nice job on the dips Mike. Diet isn't looking too shabby either.

 

[ncgirl21]

Hey Mike !! Hope you had a good weekend. Diet is looking good and your workouts are awesome- (like always!! ) Have a good one!

 

[Saturday Fever]

Holy shit. I meant do CAT instead of 3 sets of 20, not AFTER.

Your poor triceps might need 2 days of rest after that beating. I assume you got done in 60 minutes or less. If so, that's great intensity. In the next few weeks we'll find a good day to test your max and see if we can't whip out a 385.

 

[M.J.H.]

Cyndi: Thanks so much for the support, it means so much, you have no idea. My bench honestly just recently has improved a good amount (since SF has been helping me). I am really trying to kickstart my bench to get it way up. Closer to 400ish rather than 350. We'll see what happens in the next few months. If all goes well I would love a 405 bench by this fall maybe.

BCC: Damn it's great to see you posting here at IM bro, and thanks. Appreciate it. Diet was okay until last night and this morning. Last night pigged out on low-carb brownies, and this morning it was f*cking Perkin's. Damnit.

Andrea: Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. My weekend was basically just work. That's about it. Nothing too exciting at all. Oh well.

SF: LOL, oh well man, I couldn't figure out what you meant. It sure as hell beat the f*ck outta' my triceps---that's for sure. Delts and triceps and rotator cuffs were all screaming yesterday. I really think that I should try 365 before even attempting 385, don't you? I need to break that mental wall I think since last time I failed on 365.

 

[M.J.H.]

6-7-2004​

Lower Body 1 (squat)

Box Squats:
135x1, 165x1, 195x1, 225x1, 255x1, 285x1, 315x1, 345x1, 375x1, 405x1, 435x1, 465x1

SLDL:
475x2, 475x2, 475x2, 475x2, 475x2, 475x2, 525x1, 525x1

Suspended Good Mornings:
205x4, 205x4, 205x4, 205x4, 205x4, 205x4

Support Rows:
255x5, 255x5, 255x5, 210x7, 210x7

Nautilus Pullovers:
280x6, 280x6
Dropset: 260x9, 220x7, 180x6, 140x6

Anyway, started off working up to a 1RM in box squats. Honestly, stopped at 465 just because I still think that my form needs work. And even though I have practiced this new form I think I still need to perfect it before I can go really heavy. Anyway, good sets regardless. Used a new way of working up to my 1RM that SF mentioned to me. Using singles the entire time and adding 30 lbs. each time. Worked pretty well I think, from what I could tell. Anyway, my sets of SLDL were INSANE. I was friggin' exhaused by the 3rd or 4th one. Beating the f*ck outta' my lower back and hamstrings. Pulled 525 for 2 singles. Ouch.

Moved onto suspended good mornings. Talk about a f*cking KILLER for my lower back and hamstrings. These 6 sets of 4 were absolutely torture. Kicked me in my f*cking a*s, completely. Support rows were pretty good, I was exhausted at this point. I mean I was completely drained. Then some pullovers to beat my lats up good. Overall workout wasn't bad at all.

---Chatted with the group of powerlifters about my squatting and pulling technique, etc. And they also made me feel like my strength was absolutely insane, LOL. They couldn't believe a 20 year old could pull over 600 for whatever reason. Something else that I wanted to mention was this other guy, how good he made me feel about my physique. I was in the locker room getting changed and he told me that I should seriously powerlift for fun and do bodybuilding competitions. He thinks I would kick serious a*s in a bodybuilding competition, or modeling he said for that matter. His idea was to model, to make money, to support my bodybuilding. This is not some kid were talking a 45 year old man here, so I took all of this as a big compliment.

Diet:
- 3 scrambled eggs, 2 sausage patties, hash browns, 3 strawberry & whipped cream pancakes, orange juice
- 2% milk, maple pecans
- banana
- MRP + 1% milk
- Gatorade during workout, whey protein postworkout
- Balance Gold bar
- turkey & cheese sub
- breaded chicken

Diet today honestly sucked, bad. Well the first meal was bad, and then after that I cleaned it up as best I could. Really really a shame though that I f*cking went to Perkin's this morning like some fat slob and ate all that sh*tty crap. Oh well. There's nothing that I can do about it now unfortunately.

Sleep: 5 hours.

Weight: 229 lbs. WTF? Godd*mnit. This is just ridiculous.

---Day 3 of M1T, 5mg 2x per day. Definitely too soon to really try and notice anything at all, honestly.

 

[PreMier]

I think that dude was hitting on you... He didnt tell you to pick up the soap did he?

J/K man haha

You know its easily possible to add muscle while loosing fat on M-1T? Dont focus on you weight too much.. Look at your body comp.

 

[GRIFF]

Hey buddy, workouts are lookin great, you're really gettin' up there with everything, very impressive. Sorry I havent been keepin up much lately, been busy with the new job, brothers graduation, stuff like that lately, but be on the lookout for my dead lift vid, I'm gonna need you to help me resize it, I've got back tommorow no its ands or buts, and I'm feelin' fresh, so be prepared