Man Up

I don’t buy bodybuilding magazines often (though I do have a subscription to The New Yorker) but a friend gave me the September 2010 issue of MuscleMag because it’s got my favourite bodybuilder, the illustrious Hidetada Yamagishi, on the cover. Eye candy aside it’s a pretty good issue — lots of articles about getting strong! I love this quote from Jimmy Peña’s article “Doorway to Strength”:

While lifting superhuman weights may not be as high on your list as building muscle size, at one point or another you may decide to focus solely on enhancing pure, bar-bending brute strength… If that’s the case, follow us down the path only the strong have taken. Here’s the door. And no, it’s not stuck — it’s just heavy.

How to Get Strong

If at first you don’t succeed…

– try, try, try, try again and again and again and again. But try harder next time!

I Hate Dips and Dips Hate Me

Dips feel so bad! When I do them I half expect my sternum to snap in two and my chest to open up, emptying everything that belongs in my thoracic cavity out onto the dirty gym floor in a great deluge of blood. Evidently the dips are winning!

Never Strong Enough

I can’t believe I survived the last few weeks of classes! Hallelujah, y’all!

I had a good workout in an eerily quiet gym this afternoon. I liked having all the equipment to myself because I’m greedy! But I missed the hustle and bustle and the noise and the energy and the eye candy.

My best friend took these pictures for me this afternoon (thank you again Charlie!). Please humour me by telling me that you can see some pec separation in the last one! I swear it’s right there in the middle! Now if only I had the matching shoulders, arms, back, legs… I really want to get bigger! And stronger! I want it all! I mentioned that I’m greedy, right?

Happy Squat Monday!

I trained at the Toronto Athletic Club this morning instead of at UofT. I’d planned to swim, and it would’ve been convenient because I could have extended the simile I’m about to make if I had, but it turns out that I made a good decision when I decided to start my Monday off with some heavy squats instead! I got PRs all over the place and it felt pretty glorious. On my way home, because I was walking through the PATH back towards Union Station as everyone else was going in the opposite direction, I felt like a particularly heroic little salmon swimming against the current! I think today’s going to be good.

Here’s a joke to brighten your morning: What’s yellow and dangerous?

Shark infested custard!

A Setback

I followed up last week’s squat PR with bench press, pullup, and deadlift PRs…but I was humbled yesterday when I failed a squat that should have been easy. How provoking. As Aristotle* said, “Powerlifting acts as a corrective against sinful pride”. Tomorrow I’m trying for another bench press PR and I really hope it goes better. I live in fear of dropping the bar on my face!

*It might not have been Aristotle, now that I come to think of it…

Back in My Otter Suit

This morning I went swimming at the Toronto Athletic Club. The view from the top of the TD Waterhouse Tower is glorious!

Since the pool is on the 36th floor it’s very shallow — fortunate, since I’d probably have drowned if there was a real deep end. I used to swim for an hour a day, but I stopped when I took up weight training… my swimming skills have deteriorated a lot! My front crawl was a gasping, floundering mess today! I think the CN Tower was laughing at me.

Here’s the pool before and after cute yellow goggles…

Zing!

I got a nice squat PR today without sucking up to the god of powerlifting. 145# for reps! I’d like a bench press PR on Wednesday, too. And losing some more weight this week would be nice. An A+ on the essay I’m working on right now would be nice too. And a pony! Maybe I’d better not push my luck…

Big News! Big Excitement!

In the sidebar to your right you’ll notice a new addition: a countdown to my first powerlifting meet! The competition is on August 21 and I couldn’t be more excited! My main interest is still in physique competitions, but I figure that I might as well compete in powerlifting until I’ve got the size I need for bodybuilding. And when I found a pink belt and knee wraps I was sold! I would really like to get my bench press up to 135# by August. I’m not sure how realistic a goal that is, but I like a challenge.

V is for…

Valentine’s Day! I’m up for any excuse to wear tarty underwear and eat cinnamon hearts! Three more days!

V also stands for v-taper. I’ve got a little lower-case v-taper going on (Times New Roman FTW!), but I think bigger is better. Hold the roses — give me muscles! Sometimes I feel like I’m going to be little forever. And then I remember that I won’t be little forever, because I’m nothing if not motivated!