The new food guide pyramid;

I was looking through my stack of stuff that i have on my desk the other day, this is the stack of stuff whenever i find some articles of intrest i print them out and add them to this stack. Sometimes, some articles get left behind for one reason or another and i loose track of some important points of intrest. The good news is that sooner or later i come across these "forgotten" articles and i bring them to your attention, i.e., the new food guide pyramid.
On may 26th, 2006, The new food guide pyramid came to my attention and i printed it out and it got lost in my stack. For a full explanation of the new food guide pyramid i suggest that you log onto www.kidshealth.org and read up on this important subject matter. This food guide pyramid has a lot to do with the health of our children and it will give you good guidelines for feeding your child or children a well balanced diet, which, i shouldn't have to remind you, is imperative for that child or children to grow up into strong, healthy and well adjusted adults. You are well aware of just how important the diet is when it comes to your body and working out and the same importance should be applied when it comes to the health and well being of your children.
I will go into further detail about the body and the diet in future entries regarding working out and give you solid guidelines for what to eat and not to eat to reach the weight training goals you are after.

Recommended Reading;

A few weeks ago i purchased a book by the title of, The Wisdom of Mike Mentzer, By John Little with Joanne Sharkey, and i was amazed at some of the philosophies of the bodybuilder known as mike mentzer. Up to that point the only thing i knew about mike mentzer was that he was in most of the pictures that i've seen from the past where a handfull of some of the greatest bodybuilders stood side by side in some old photos. Mike was in the company of frank zane, franco colombo and so on to name just a few, and they were usually working out or watching some other easy to name great bodybuilder working out. I also was aware of mike's heavy duty training philosophy where he advocated using only a few sets per body part per workout. I myself am not a big believer in the heavy duty training philosophy as mike mentzer preached it, however i am a big believer in his training philosophy regarding high intensity and heavy weights. I just believe in more sets and more reps, but that is not here nor there for the purpose of this entry.
Mike mentzer's philosophy with regards to his bodybuilding competition transcends to all aspects of life in general. He believed that instead of trying to foil someone else's attempt at greatness, he believed in helping that person acheive greatness and in turn he would help not only himself but everyone else achieve the same greatness by trying to elevate themselves to be better than the best. In other words, when you go into a competition, regardless of what that competition is, it is better to win by beating the best than by winning because the best person did not show up! That, however is only the tip of the iceberg and i urge you to purchase and thoroughly read his book. Even if you are like me and do not agree with his heavy duty training philosophy in its entirety, you will get something out of his philosophies about competition and life in general. It doesn't matter if you are a competitior at all, as long as you have the drive to achieve the body that you are after, this book will inspire you on your journey as it has done for me.

Powerlifting competition;

On january 13th, 2007, i entered the powerlifting competition that i urged all of you to attend in a previous entry. I entered the deadlift competition part only, seeing as how it was my first ever competition and i wanted to start slowly and see what the whole competition was like before i went into all three parts of the competition which are the squat, bench press and the deadlift. I entered as a sub-master, putting me in the thirty to thirty nine age range and the two hundred and forty two pound class. I am happy to report that i did pretty well for my first powerlifting competition, i pulled a conservative 655lb. dead and won first place in my class! The judges as well as many other people attending told me that i made that weight look easy and next time i should go heavier! It wasn't as easy as i made it look however i am capable of doing more. I did not mention my entry to the powerlifting competition before hand because i did not train for the meet in a powerlifting fashion and i still trained the whole week before the competition with the weights at fifty to seventy five percent of what i usually train with. I was unsure of how i would do and i would've reported this in this blog regardless of the outcome, to allow you to get a perspective from the competitior's side of the competition. It was a great experience and if anyone has any desire to powerlift, i highly recommend it. I plan on competiting in the future and i am unconcerned with where i place in the competition, just competiting was reward enough for me. The first place trophy and the reconigition from my peers was just the icing on the cake! I still plan on training as a powerbodybuilder for the forseeable future with the hope of helping my training partner, ted, to get his pro card in bodybuilding. I will go into more depth in future entries as for now i am out of time. Stay inspired and train hard and smart!

Powerlifting competition;

Anyone intrested in powerlifting or any kind of weight training can come this saturday, january 13th, 2007, to the carteret high school on roosevelt avenue in carteret, to see a real live powerlifting competition. If you've never seen one and you would like to, then this is one i highly recommend. It is being held by the owner of skiba's power lifting gym also from carteret and the forementioned gym has a lot of great lifters competiting. Not to mention that there will also be some supplement companies that will have their supplements on display, such as MHP and gaspari nutrition to name just a couple. The gym i train at from milltown, the muscle mill, will also have a table to stop at and i will be around to answer some questions, not to mention, a lot of other very knowledgable people will also be there, who have forgotten more than i will probably ever know, to answer any questions you might have regarding nutrition, training and supplementation. I would like to make a special note to all the parents out there that have children at the age where they might be intrested in beginning a training program, this is the place to get the information you are seeking. I equate this competition to many concerts that i have been to, after seeing many a great guitarist up on stage playing his heart out, i cannot wait to go home and jam out on my guitar and this power meet will, hopefully, inspire everyone in attendance to go home and find a renewed vigor for their training program! These men and women in this competition are the epitome of training hard and smart when it comes to powerlifting! Hope to see you there!
By the way, it starts at ten a.m. on saturday morning, as i said previously, at the carteret high school in carteret new jersey.

Inspirational picture;

This is a picture of ted taken mid way through two thousand and six while we were working out by a photographer. What you are looking at is a reflection of ted in the gym mirror doing leg extensions. I thought this was such a well taken photo that i had to share it with all of you. In my opinion, it captures the essence and intensity of what our training sessions are all about. Man against machine not to mention man against himself. I hope this picture inspires you as much as it has inspired me and also helps me maintain the intense workouts needed to push ted to a higher level to hopefully one day get him his pro card that he desires. I also hope that you will look to find some photo or quote that you can hang up in a place where you can look at or read it everyday and to find the inspiration to get to the gym and to try harder each and every time you walk into the gym. Every time you enter the gym is another chance to put your head down and run as hard as you can into the wall of progress, and every now and then, that wall of progress moves you one tiny step closer to your goals! Train hard and smart and know that anything is possible if you want it bad enough!