DB Incline Bench Press
22kg x 8
28kg x 8
32kg x 8

Cable Crossover
15kg x 16
20gk x 16

Cable Tricep Pushdown
40kg x 8
50kg x 8
60kg x 8
60kg x 8
60kg x 8

Had to be up at 5 to get to the hospital this morning for my nursing module. Really didn’t feel like training and I have a stomach virus which is messing me over.
Weak as hell.

Lat Pulldown
55kg x 8
75kg x 8
100kg x 8
100kg x 7

Cable Seated Row - close grip
50kg x 8
70kg x 8
100kg x 8

Machine Bicep Curl - single arm
10kg x 8
15kg x 8
20kg x 8

Barbell Curl
40kg x 8
50kg x 8
50kg x 8

Not a bad session.

In physiology today we measured our bodyfat using a variety of methods – mine ranged from 6% to 33%. Funny to see just how inaccurate various methods are.
I also found out that bathroom bioimepdence scales only measure bodyfat for your lower body and the hand held ones only do upper body. You can get ones that do both (it has a stand with handles on it) though but it’s still probably inaccurate.

I also found out that my weight is now 86kg. Which does make the fact that I’ve maintained most of my strength while losing 10kg quite impressive but it also means that I’ve lost a heck of a lot of weight due to my endocrine problems and my arms are down to 16″ from 17″

Ruined my entire day.

20kg x 40
60kg x 8
80kg x 8
100kg x 3 – so weak
80kg x 5
70kg x 12

I’m disgusted with how weak I am now

DB Incline Bench Press
26kg x 8
30kg x 6
34kg x 6

Machine Chest Flye 1 second hold at contraction, 2 second eccentric
30kg x 10
50kg x 8
40kg x 8

Skull Crusher
30kg x 8
40kg x 8
50kg x 5 – so weak

Cable Tricep Pushdown
30kg x 8
40kg x 7
35kg x 8

Then I did 10 mins of HIIT.

Not a bad session, don’t know why I did cardio at the end, thought it would be a nice change lol.

Yates Row
20kg x 8
60kg x 8
100kg x 8
120kg x 8

Went slightly wider on the grip and it really nailed my teres.

Machine Row
40kg x 8
60kg x 8
80kg x 8

The weight peg/arm bent and I couldn’t load anymore weight on

Barbell Curl
30kg x 8
40kg x 8
50kg x 8 – nearly lost it because I burst out laughing at the song on the radio

Hammer Preacher Curl
10kg x 10
10kg x 10
10kg x 10

Done for the day. Felt good to be in the gym again and my back doesn’t seem to have gotten much weaker at all considering my hormones are not being produced.

Two studies show that while an increase in growth hormone is possible, it may not actually have any affect at all!

Growth hormone seems to be the in thing at the moment – everyone seems to be claiming that this guy or that guy is boosting is GH via whatever means (usually via illegal means).

A lot of people misunderstand what growth hormone actually does – despite the misleading name it doesn’t actually elicit any real growth.

What it does do is increase autocrine and paracrine growth factors in other areas of the body that do promote growth. It increases levels of IGF-1 which promotes muscle stem cell (satellite cell) proliferation into actual muscle cells (only in very high doses of IGF-1 to promote new muscle fibers growth rather than stem cells joining into existing fibers). It also increases MGF levels – however IGF-1 blocks the action of MGF.

Growth hormone will generally increase most other hormonal release in the body and I mean that very generally. It does have a direct effect on prolactin (the hormone that makes people – even men – lactate) and cortisol (the stress hormone).

It’ll also make your hair and skin nicer and help with anti-aging.

Enough about growth hormone for now, let’s talk about amino acids.

For a long time people have claimed that arginine and glutamine both increase GH release. New studies have shown that growth hormone release can occur from supplementing 2.2g of Ornithine with 3g of Arginine and 12mg of B12. This combination causes an increase in growth hormone levels and IGF-1 levels – however, the research stated that at the end of the research period there were no significant changes when compared against what the training alone would do.

That study is here

Another study goes into MUCH more detail about growth hormone and the amino acids you can use to increase it, how much of an increase etc.

That study’s here

Here’s a table summary from that study:

The Effect of Amino Acids on Growth Hormone Release

As you can see from the table – the largest increase was documented by Tanaka et al using 0.5 Arginine/kg which gave an increase of almsot 13 times…but not all of us are experienced in doing IV injections on ourselves and I would advise strongly against it.

The best results were documented by Isidori et al showing that an oral combination of 1.2g of Arginine and 1.2g of Lysine gave an increase of 8 times the normal amount of growth hormone.

The study then goes on to state in the summary that in view of all the research and the physical effects of the amino acids (not just the GH increase) that there is no reason to supplement with amino acids for the positive side effects of growth hormone.

However, it can’t hurt to give it a go even if it just helps you increase the amount of slow wave sleep you have (the most regenerative and deep sleep). Oh did I not mention that growth hormone can help you with your sleep? It can. Following this dosing protocol may actually yield results (new muscle and lots of fat loss) if used for long enough so it may actually be beneficial.

So, I put it in your hands – you can use a lysine/arginine combo to increase your GH and possibly gain some small benefits to your physique and other benefits to your health from it or you can just skip it.

As always high quality supplements can be purchased from HERE!

Best wishes Jay, and a speedy recovery!

4 Time Mr O.

The 200′s felt easy.

Machine Leg Press
300kg x 6
400kg x 6
500kg x 6
580kg x 6

I want to find a way to put more weight on.

Machine Leg Curl
30kg x 8
40kg x 8
50kg x 8

Pretty good session.

Back and arms today – some little kids were using the squat rack for about an hour so I couldn’t do my yates rows.
Machine Row - uniateral and plate loaded – weight is per arm
25kg x 8
50kg x 8
75kg x 8
100kg x 8

Lat Pulldown
47kg x 8
67kg x 8

Switched to:
Close Grip Lat Pulldown
77kg x 6
87kg x 6
97kg x 5
97kg x 10 – partial ROM, no arm bending
107kg x 8 – partial ROM, no arm bending

The partials give me one heck of a teres burn and allow me to really stretch my lats and teres. I fully release and stretch at the end of the partial sets for a 10 second hold, then I put my head through my arms so my chin’s on my chest and do another 10 second hold.

Seated Preacher Curl – DB Hammer Preacher Curl - superset
20kg x 10, 10kg x 10
20kg x 10, 10kg x 10
30kg x 10, 10kg x 10

Skullrcushers – Cable Tricep Pushdown - superset
30kg x 10, 56kg x 10
30kg x 10, 56kg x 10
40kg x 10, 70kg x 10

Fantastic arm pump today.

Didn’t do much in the way of back work but I threw in some band pull-aparts to hit my rhomboids.

Legs tomorrow already! Damn.

He’s worried about my eosinophil levels being consistently high –  which suggests that I have blood parasites or a tape worm or something of that nature. Odds are I don’t; monocytes are elevated as well. Maybe I just have a gigantic cold all the time.
In my experience with the NHS – if something is wrong they won’t ring you. If everything’s fine but the doctor thinks something’s wrong because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about – they’ll ring you and call it urgent

Chest Press - unilateral, plate loaded
20kg x 8
40kg x 8
60kg x 8
80kg x 8

Machine Shoulder Press - unilateral, plate loaded
35kg x 8
55kg x 8
65kg x 8

Raises Superset
6kg x 10
6kg x 10 – reverse order
6kg x 10

Shrugs
70kg x 10
120kg x 8
170kg x 8

It was a pretty good session, my shoulders are on fire from the raises. Didn’t want to do too much pressing this time so that my rotators had a rest.

Back Squat
20kg x 8
50kg x 8
80kg x 8
110kg x 6
140kg x 5
170kg x 3 – had more in the tank but no spotter.

Well I had a spotter but his idea of spotting was to watch me and go “come on man come on you can do it” even while I was racking the weight.

Leg Press
300kg x 8
400kg x 8
500kg x 6 – popped something in my inguinal region when I was using the lock
580kg x 6 – wish I could put more weight on

The pop didn’t hurt so I’m assuming it was just a tendon/ligament rolling as I twisted. Very odd though.

Single Leg Curl
30kg x 8
40kg x 8
50kg x 8

Standing Crunch
26kg x 10
33kg x 10
33kg x 10

Hanging Leg Raise - bring feet up past eye level
10 reps
10 reps
10 reps

Great session today, very pleased. Just wish I had a spotter so I could rep out on the squats.