TUESDAY, December 3, 2012

Musings of a Tuesday:  To begin, it's unbelievable to realize that my daughter Lexi turns 2 today.  I can't help but feel elated and saddened by this.  I love children and I love my children, as everyone does, more than I could have ever imagined, and to see them grow is an amazing and rewarding thing, but it is also bitter sweet because I enjoy each and every moment with them.  It's such an awesome phenomenon to see them progress.  Their sweetness and innocence is inspiring and life changing.  Each of my daughters has made me a better person and I am excited to see Lexi grow, but sad that each of the moments I have had with her are gone.  However it is exciting to see each new moment and to I am anxious to see her grow each and everyday.  Two years ago yesterday I remember we were at the Clyde Christmas festival when my wife turned to me and told me we had to drive to Toledo as her contractions began and were getting closer.  This cascade of events led to about a 24 hour period where we were in the hospital.  The labor actually hadn't begun, but once it did, the process went fast and the amazing Lord brought us our second daughter.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Thank you God, Kristy, and Lexi for being so amazing!

THANKFUL:

As Thanksgiving has past us, I wanted to reflect on some things and share some other things.  Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday.  It reminds of us of so many things we should be grateful for.  Our ancestors, our families, our belief systems, our jobs/occupations, and a myriad of other personal things we hold dearly.  As I get older each year I am more and more thankful for so many little things, but I also realize how fast life passes us by.  One of the observations I've made through the recent years is how it becomes increasingly difficult in our society to slow down and enjoy the moment.  We get caught up in our personal lives and the day to day tasks that we must accomplish, whether it being work related, family related, or just our own personal routines.  This rushing around is so unhealthy and what has caused many of our chronic illnesses in our societies, ranging from stress to heart disease to obesity, just to name a few.  Thanksgiving (and the holiday season in general), is a time to slow down and enjoy all the things we love so dearly.  If this means stepping away from our own personal fitness routine for a day or two, so be it.  One of the things I was thankful for was seeing many of my friends showing balance in their lives around Thanksgiving.  I ready multiple posts on facebook (and talked to friends as well) talking about people were taking the day off from training, or enjoying some food with family.  This is a healthy thing.  It creates balance.  It lets those around us know they are more important than anything (more important than our workout, more important than our "diet").  Don't get me wrong, health and healthy living are of utmost importance, but crating around your meals and getting training in an empty gym doesn't make you hardcore.  It makes you unbalanced.  Yes, I did train on Thanksgiving.  I stayed on my normal routine, woke up early, ate and hit the gym.  However, once my training was done, the day was open for whatever and I was back home by 9 AM ready to enjoy my family and food and boy did I enjoy food.  In fact, I enjoyed food Friday and Saturday.  To me, it was a time to renew myself and relax.  I didn't eat like it was my last meal on earth, but I enjoyed 2 Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday and on Friday I surprised my wife at work with BW3 for lunch and I took my oldest daughter on a Dad/Daughter date to see Frozen and to her favorite restaurant, Bob Evans.  Saturday I enjoyed some chicken and a few beers at a friends house to watch college football.  It was great.  It was relaxing.  It revived my mojo for the oncoming crazy weeks before Christmas.  Did I eat too much?  Probably.  Did I gain a bit of weight?  Certainly.  Did I enjoy every minute?  YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!  Will it continue into this week and into Christmas and through the New Year?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  

What do these ramblings mean?  It all boils down to BALANCE!  If we are balanced in our lives and we live a healthy life day in and day out, enjoying yourself and your family and FOOD for a day or two is not going to cause you major harm, but again, even with our indulgences we need to practice moderation and balance.  Enjoy the day, enjoy the parties, but be ready to get right back into your fitness routine.  Hit it hard.  Re-motivate yourself and re-commit yourself to the next 3 weeks and enjoy Christmas and hit it hard again.  Remember, health is not just how often you workout and eating 100% clean all the time, its about balance.  It's about mental, emotional, spiritual, and social health.  For some of us, that means competing.  For others, it's simply doing things to maintain a healthy weight and a positive energy level.  Whatever your personal goals may be, please remember to slow down, enjoy the ones you love, and do your best to create a positive balance in your life!

KYLE

ANOTHER WONDERFUL WEEKEND 11/24/2013

Wow!  What an amazing weekend.  I have the absolute best family in the world.  After planning on training arms on Friday there was a wrench thrown into my plan.  My beautiful and amazing wife had to stay after at work to do some things and I had to go pick up the girls.  I love picking up the girls and once everyone was home it was around 6 and my oldest daughter wanted to go up to my dad's baseball school and hit.  I couldn't say no, so we went up there and did some hitting and throwing with Grandpa.  Afterward we came home to some lightly breaded chicken and sweet potato fries!  Then we hunkered down to watch Family Game Night on TV. 

Saturday, after training legs, I had a few pitching/batting lessons then we braved the bitter cold at in Westlake at Crocker Park for the Tree Lighting and Firework festivities!  Lexi got her picture with Elmo a couple of times and was so sad to have to leave him.  She kept saying "Buh Bye MoMo" with this sad look on her face.  Poor thing.  I'll try to upload some pictures later.  It was a great day.  We hit up Trader Joe's for some Ezekial bread and muffins, fruit, nuts, nut butters, and other great tasting, healthy foods!  We also hit up Michael Simons B Spot for a cheat meal.  I had a Lola Burger, which is a burger with bacon, cheddar and an egg.  Delicious.  I also enjoyed some Winter Wheat Ale that was superb. 

Sunday was filled with watching the Browns lose (so sad), but the girls and I went over to watch and play with Grandpa Bob and it was a BLAST!  After the game I hit the gym as Kristy and the girls went to eat with their other Grandma and Grandpa.  Sad I missed it, but I HAD to let out some aggression after the Browns laid another egg.

Only 2 days of work this week with Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow until 9 PM and Tuesday until 8PM.

Had some good workouts.  Saturday's leg day was nothing to boast about, but it was good and I got an amazing pump thanks to Broser Built's B Pump pre workout.  It was a perfect workout considering that my legs were still sore from 100 reps of squats with 225 on Tuesday. Today's chest/shoulder workout was very nice as well.  Felt HUGE as my weight is climbing and holding steady at 165, even though I'd like to be a bit leaner, but that's probably from enjoying too much food and too many goodies/cheats here and there at this point.

Tomorrow is an off day (with a little cardio in the morning) and then Tuesday morning before work it'll be back and arms!  Can't wait.

Kyle

Wednesday, 11/20/2013

I thought I'd begin today by doing a run down of what I ate and trained yesterday and my plan for today's training.

5:30 AM - 1 scoop B-Drive by B Built (BCAA supplement containing HBM - which is a form of HMB that is much more orally bioavailable than regular HMB)

Meal 1 - 3 Whole Eggs, 8 Egg Whites, 2 pieces ezekial bread, 1 ezekial english muffin
Meal 2 - 5 oz 93/7 Lean Beef, 150 grams broccoli
Meal 3 - 1.5 scoops Syntrax Nectar (36 grams whey protein), 2 TBSP Almond Butter
Meal 3 - 6 oz Chicken, 150 grams sweet potato
     Pre Workout - 1 scoop B Pump by B Built + 1 scoop Alphagen by Morphogen*
     TRAIN - Sip 15 grams BCAA
     Post Workout - 1 scoop B Drive by Built
Meal 4 - 30 grams Karbolyn, 30 Grams Whey Protein (Syntrax Nectar)
Meal 5 - 1.5 cups Wild Rice, 1 oz Chicken (cooked with chicken broth), sliced carrots, 4 oz 90/10 Beef
     Desert:  We ate at my mothers last night.  I'm not typically a desert eater, but she had freshly baked apple crisp and I've been jonesing for apple pie for some reason.  I had myself a couple of helpings and LOVED every second of it
Meal 6 - 6 oz Chicken, 1 TBSP Almond butter

Tuesday was Legs for me.  I've been doing a squatting 10X10 workout the last few weeks trying to add 10-20 pounds each week.  I start by taking 1 minute rests between sets and if I do not get 10 reps on a set I rest pause then complete that set of 10 and increase my rest time by 30 seconds.  I keep doing this  until I get 10 X 10.  For example, I'll do a set of 10 then rest for 1 minute.  I'll keep this up until I fail at a number under 10 (let's say 8), then I rack the weight, rest for 10 breaths, and complete the last 2 reps.  I'll then increase my rest time to 90 seconds.  I was doing this about mid prep for the Natural Northern with 225 for 10 sets of 10 pretty good.  Yesterday was the first time I moved back up to 225.  I had to rest 90 seconds to 150 sconds between each set and it actually took me 11 sets to get 100 reps.

Warm-up:  Outer/Inner Machine - 70/15, 80/15, 90/12, 90/10
1.  Squats - 225 X 100 reps - took 11 sets
2.  Seated Leg Curl - 100 X 10 - 8 sets - 1 minute rests
3.  Outer Thigh - 90/12 X 3
4.  Leg Ext (2/1/1/2) - 60/15, 70/15, 80/12, 90/10, 90/10

Today, Wednesday, is Chest/Shoulder day.  The plan is as follows:

1.  Incline Bench - 10 X 10 w/ 185 pounds
2.  Decline DB Bench - 4 X 8-12
3.  Incline Cable Fly - 3 X 10-15
4.  Heavy Partial Lateral Raise - Warm-up with 3-4 sets of 10, then 4-5 sets of 8-10 partials
5.  Barbell Shoulder Press - 4 X 6-10
6.  Reverse Pec Dec - 5 X 10-20

Hoping to get a bit of cardio in tonight.  Nothing super hard, about 20-25 minutes of 3.5 MPH at a 5% incline on the treadmill.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

NPC Team Universe is just over 32 weeks away from us and I have finally decided to give it a go.  Am I ready to win or even make top 5?  Possibly not, however competing at Team Universe has always been a goal of mine and now is as good of time as ever for me to take the leap.  As many of you know I am a full time elementary PE teacher and I’ve coached high school baseball for the last 11 years.  Even though baseball is my first love, and I still love the game, I decided to step down from that endeavor this season in order to focus on my family and to help some family members out.  They have made countless sacrifices for me the last dozen or so years so I could play college baseball and coach and it is my time to make some sacrifices.  Because of this, I can focus a bit more on my training and a spring prep is possible.  Also, being that I have 2 young daughters (a kindergartener that will be 6 in January and a one that turns 2 in December) that are starting to get involved in things like piano, gymnastics, and baseball if I don’t try Team U now, there will be a point where our lives will be so centered around our daughters that I will never do it. 

Some may or may not know my competitive history, but I have been competing for a few years now and have done well at non-national, drug tested shows finishing top 2 numerous times and winning my class on probably just as many occasions (I’ll write about my competitive history in a future blog).  I just recently re-qualified for Team Universe for the 6^th time (I have been qualified every year since 2006 except for 2013 because I took all of 2012 off) by getting 2^nd in the Lightweight division of Dave Liberman’s NPC Natural Northern USA (An amazing show that had 301 total competitors and 16 in my class alone).  Even though 2^nd place in a class of 16 (a good class) would be deemed well by most, I was disappointed for multiple reasons.  One, I have gotten 2^nd so many times at shows of this caliber (2 times at this particular show), many of them being 1 point decisions.  Secondly, I do not feel I was my best.  I seemed to look amazing one hour and then flatten out the next and it wasn’t for lack of eating the day before or day of the show.  I know what my best is and I was much bigger and fuller the days leading up to the show and my legs were much crisper the night before the show.  The biggest things I need to figure out at this point are how to get my glutes and hams leaner without losing the fullness in my quads and upper body and also bringing in a super dry physique, which I typically do. 

I am starting this blog/journal to help keep tabs for myself and also as a learning experience for anyone that wants to read it.  I hope this can be a motivational tool for people in all aspects of life and levels of fitness.  I dream that one day I can support my family by assisting people develop a greater level of health, that is my true passion.  I think I can offer a unique perspective to the fitness lifestyle because I have played sports at a high level (collegiate), competed in bodybuilding at a pretty high level, I work full time, and I am a husband and father.  I definitely don’t have life figured out, and I still struggle at times, but I feel I have been able to develop a level of balance to my life that can help other people that lack time and are givers.  I am going to try to post here as often as possible, whether it is a journal entry or simply the foods that I have eaten on any given day or my workouts.  I also hope to share some of the wonderful transformations and success stories of the amazing people that have allowed me to help them along their fitness journey!