Pumpingsession on Sunday

Usually I spend my Sundays at home cleaning the house, doing the laundry (mostly gym clothes) and recovering from my workouts. 

But now that my coach changed my training plan, I have to workout six times a week to get more shredded than last season. Yes I know this might sound very hard for some of you but it will be totally worth it. #nopainnogain, right?

My life has changed so much during the last year. I could never have imagined that I would spend my Friday and Saturday nights at home on the couch recovering, to make sure I'm not too tired the days after... But now we are here... I even spend my sunday afternoon in the gym to hit the 6th workout of the week.

Back in the days I was lying on the couch recovering from the party the day before. 

But to be honest, I don't miss anything about it. When I look at all those people working off their butts in the gym during the week, paying attention to their alimentation and on weekends they drink alcohol, eat crap and turn their body's rhythm upside down and mostly destroying the progress they made during the week, well then I really prefer to get up early in the morning, have my healthy breakfast,feel good and fit...but most of all feel HEALTHY. 

If you want to suceed , you have to leave your old and bad habits behind you and move on... Even if this means to give up that one or another bit of your social life... but hey friends will come and go, ' but 200 pounds will always be 200 pounds'.

That being said, I hope you enjoy my video. Leave a message on my channel and enjoy the last hours of your sunday evening.

Back/Shoulder Session

As already mentioned two days ago, I got a new training plan. 

And with new routines comes new muscle soreness as muscles are being stimulated and trained differently. We switched from 5 sets of 13/15/13/15/13 reps to simply 5 sets of 13, which allows me to increase the weights and also the intensity. So I don't have to occupy half of the weights in the gym anymore, as I always warm-up with lighter weights and go on with two different weights for 13 and 15 reps.

Concerning the Back-shoulder/Back session, we didn't change that much, we only changed the Barbell Rows to Negative Barbell Rows and replaced the Deadlift with the Sitting Rowing Machine, which I have never used before to be honest. It was kind of funny when I wanted to use the Rowing Machine because as I am not very tall, I had to set up the seat almost the highest so I could reach the handholds... (don't laugh at me)

Still I wasn't sure about the weight, so I warmed-up with 5kg each side and went on with 10 , then 15 and finally 20. I think it's better to try it out step by step than to look like a complete douchbag , loading up all the weights and being absolutely NOT able to lift (or in my case, row) it and look completely stupid (like most of the men when they are using a new machine)

I wonder how painful this soreness in the back will be as I still can't walk correctly because of the new leg-day I had on Monday.  Today I still feel , let's say, 'ok', let's talk about it again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow... (#liftersproblems)

Oh and the pictures were taken by a coach of the gym. Of course the staff is always super friendly when you are visiting and checking out the gym for the first time, as they want new members, but they are still all very friendly, open-minded , funny and always ready to help you out, for whatever it might be.

I hope you had a great week so far and enjoy the rest of it, only 2 more days until weekend. #youcandoit

Size vs. Strength Training

You know how much I praise lifting weights, don't you? But don't get me wrong when I tell you that lifting heavy weights isn't always good for you. I know this sounds confusing, but there is a difference between healthy weight-lifting and retarded weight-lifting. There are even two main categories of lifting, size training and strength training...

• Strength Training: 

If you are looking for strength-training, you want to increase force production. Size-training, on the contrary, is about getting a pump and creating little damages to your muscles so they can repair themselves and grow bigger. (The reason why you get muscle-soreness).

Strength training should consist of few reps but heavier weights instead, but don't forget the proper form,trying to still control the movement. So, real low-rep strength-training is primarily neuromuscular. Meaning that you teach your body to bring more muscle into the game to increase your power.

• Size Training: 

Size training is more physiological. This means that you give your body a little upgrade in its size. You are forcing your body to develop tissues and grow stronger AND bigger. This may sounds exactly like strength-training , but your main focus is to build bigger muscles, not stronger ones.

Therefor, you don't have to worry about losing your strength when you want to increase your muscles' size. All types of training can have neurological benefits, it's just a matter of the right balance between reps and weights.

A lot of people misunderstand bodybuilders by thinking that bodybuilding is about lifting heavy-ass weights, right? But, it is about using your weights as a tool to increase your muscle tissue. If you are throwing as much weight on the bar, whether to boost your ego or to impress the people around you, you are completely on the wrong way.

Now what happens when you go too heavy?

• You decrease the time under tensions because you are too busy cheating on your form to lift your weights.
• You can't control the movement because it's way too heavy and you look stupid because you are trying to lift it up again. (maybe looking like a 'about-to-explode' tomato haha)
• You have no 'brain-muscle-connection' , because (again) you have struggle to do the movement right.
• You are using too many other muscles to lift your weights, meaning you can't train your muscle isolated.

To get to the point: No one cares how much you lift in the gym, unless they are doing the same mistake...

Nevertheless, if you don't manage to lift for sets of at least 6 reps, you are more likely to train for strength, if you keep proper form. Otherwise it's just bad lifting and you won't make yourself stronger nor 'bigger, you are simply risking injuries.

To improve muscle size you should:

• Have a strict and proper form
• Control the lowering movement for at least 3 seconds.
• Have a sane and healthy muscle-brain-connection and feel the movement in your muscles. 
• Avoid to lock completely out, meaning that your muscles should be under tensions throughout the whole movement, for every rep. (e.g if you do a dumbbell-curl always try to have your biceps under tension even if you lower the movement , and don't pause between each rep )

So once again, if you love lifting-weights, like me, always keep in mind WHY you are lifting weights and HOW you are lifting heavy weights. Control every movement, feel your muscle, feel the burn and always keep your muscle under tension. You will achieve better results if you lift lighter weights and control the movement, than if you lift heavy and look like a retarded ego-driven wanna-be lifter. 

With that said, enjoy your next pump. xX

Me doing close-grip lat-pulldowns