The Life and Chronicles of Ben

Fairly bored

2010-02-05T16:42:00.002Z

This is just a quick post for me to throw in before I go eat more :D

Well today concludes my two week attachment in ENT. I enjoyed it and learned quite a bit. Next week I've to move up to Derry where I will live on the hospital site. I'll be doing general surgery then general medicine up there. I've heard it's good craic, so kinda looking forward to it, although it will be a pain having to shift a load of stuff up there.

Training-wise I am going to take a look at Pro Gym on the Strand Road in Derry. I have heard this is a nice spot and from what I have seen on the Facebook, looks like it has quite a few weights to throw about. I'll be doing deadlift and accessory in there. Going to drop in, have a look and probably a workout on Tuesday. If it's got what I need then I'll be training there for the next while, along with my usual session in Lisburn every Saturday.

I was farting about on the internet and decided to search for the definition of the word "powerlifter" on Urban Dictionary. What I found was pretty funny:

"Fat hairy white guy who shaves his head and grows a goatee while binging on McDonalds and listening to heavy metal music but can put up massive weight in the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Said lifts are done with the smallest range of motion possible while wearing suits with hydraulics.

Said McDonalds is offset by anabolic steroids which build a massive amount of muscle. You just can't see it though because all that muscle is behind a layer of fat because powerlifters weigh 308+ pounds.

Nonetheless, powerlifters are strong as hell and could kick your ass.

Skinny guy: Look at that fat powerlifter benching with a 2 inch range of motion.
Skinny guy's Friend: He could still kick your ass and rape you until you love him though."

Link: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=powerlifter

Funny shit in my opinion. Rings true in a lot of ways! lol

Also, this week I heard there was an article in the Newsletter, Belfast about a powerlifting event which went on the other weekend. I will have to try and dig it up and give a review :P

Thought for the Day:

"A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of"

Joseph Addison

Peace

bEn

Training Update

2010-01-31T12:36:00.004Z

Managed to get a few videos yesterday. Second day in Boss briefs. I'm finding them far easier to squat in than a suit. For now, in competitions I'll just be in briefs, knee wraps and belt.

I think this was 287.5kg:

I know I'm not quite making depth on these, but that will come. A very ugly 307.5kg next. I came forward on this then attempted to push my ass down. Result = feeling as if my head was going to explode. lol.

After ballsing that up I decided to go for it again and this time I nailed it pretty well. Likewise, depth still not there.

Did 280kg x3 after this. Didn't quite catch it on video. Did some board presses next. I put this up as 200kg on youtube, but I've since realised it's 220kg:

The next video is 240kg:

The following is a complete balls up of 260 and shows why spotters are important. lol

After that I made sure I didn't chicken out and went for it again. Got it, although my wrists took a bumming and I didn't quite manage to hold it at the top. But anyways, happy enough!

That's it for now. Been ages since I took any videos, so thought I was due to add a few!

Peace

bEn

The usual

2010-01-28T18:04:00.006Z

This week has been going quite well. Back to the clinical teaching again and managed to get my boring dissertation and shitey presentation out of the way. lol. This week I've been in ENT in the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH). I like the way this attachment has been coordinated. Normally we have stupid attendance logs to fill in and get treated like kids. In this attachment we have tutorials scheduled every day for 12.30 and they don't seem bothered if we turn up to them or not. The rest of the time in the week is up to us to fill. I like it this way, gives me the chance to seek out stuff to watch/observe and don't feel like I'm being treated like a child. I've heard that attendance is taken by QUB right up to 5th year. A complete joke in my opinion. Taking attendance of 23-25 year olds who will be qualified doctors in a few months time is a bit of an insult. But anyway, I'll just continue to jump through the hoops.

Training wise, started a couple of different things this week and I feel pretty sore for it today. Hoping my hamstrings and elbows ease up for Saturday. At the moment I feel like a dog on a leash. It seems that as soon as I'm out of the gym I want to be back in it wrecking the place. lol. It's a great feeling. For a few months I really lost my spark. Training felt like a chore and my enjoyment of it had really decreased. I'm convinced that was something to do with my back pain. In the last week I haven't had any of the back pain I associated with my injury. It's unreal, I just hope it continues. I also think that I'm enjoying the training a bit more because of the people who are around me when I'm training. We're all very like minded and just want to be strong as fuck, so it works well. They know who they are. Doing all my training in the PEC on my own was becoming soul-destroying.

As regards competing this year, after a few months of thinking about it I've decided to leave the IDFPA and WDFPF. I have no issues with the IDFPA, they are a fantastic association and I have met some brilliant people there. The problem is the WDFPF, they obviously don't listen to their lifters or address issues raised. I want to compete at an international level and I'm not going to hand my money over to the WDFPF so I'm going to look elsewhere for international competition. It will also mean I will be able to travel with a group of guys from the powerlifting club as they compete GPC. IPO is looking very promising at this stage, I've heard fantastic things about that association and it seems a good step to take in my equipped lifting. In my opinion I don't nearly have the strength required to go multi-ply.

Started squatting in briefs last weekend and love love love them so far. (For those that don't know, the above picture = the briefs I'm talking about, NOT y-fronts!) Much easier than a squat suit. For my first comp this year I reckon I will just have tight briefs with a loose as hell squat suit or even just leotard over them. I have been meaning to take training videos the last while, but always totally forget. Weight-wise I'm probably sitting at about 110kg, will be hoping to get up to about 113-114 then I can make the most of the weight class and make an easy cut to 110.

Not long now until I've to move up to Derry for a few months. Looking forward to it. Don't think I'll have too many distractions, so I can just spend my time learning, training and getting my grow on. lol.

It's my birthday this week, turning 22 :S I think 22 is the age where you start to sound older. It's weird, 21 still sounds young, but 22 just sounds waaaay older. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm old, but it's weird how life moves on.

Thought for the Day:

"As you get older, you're always maturing, you're always learning something new about yourself"

Troy Vincent

Peace

bEn

This essay is doing my brain in...

2010-01-19T22:48:00.004Z

Well, it's coming to the end of this student selected module and I've landed myself in a fairly crappy position. I've ended up writing about sleep and dreaming. I thought this topic would be really interesting, turns out its been a nightmare to find any sort of useful information and basically the topic has bored the nips clean off me. I've just about scraped over the 5000 word limit and so I'm going to tidy it up and make out my list of references. It really has been painful to write. I think maybe because last semester I got to write about injuries in weight training, which meant I really did fly through that assignment.

I ran into another quality video this week for your viewing pleasure. It's another skit on the Hitler scene from some movie. This one has a powerlifting spin on it. I apologize to anyone who has no clue what it's about! I think it's absolute quality!

As regards training, all going steady since I've been back from this chest infection. Squats fairly light at the moment, just 230kg and the suit I'm wearing is pretty loose. Tightened up the knee wraps a bit more the other day. Can't remember if I mentioned my first workout in my new Super Katana before, but it was hell getting it to touch. I just need to break that shirt in and get the strength up and I shouldn't have too much to worry about. Deadlifting tomorrow with some accessory stuff. Should be a quick and easy workout. Pulls are for speed at the moment, the strength will follow. Doing my best to keep my lower back healthy as I've had quite a bit of pain with it the last week or so, although pain free since yesterday, so that's good :)

Tomorrow will consist of my trailing myself out of bed to finish this smelly scrote of an essay and then make up a presentation on it. I'll use training to break the time up.

Nothing too much else for me to go on about at the moment. Oh, got Facebook today. Eventually gave in to it. So far, not impressed. The server was crap today, loadsa things didn't work when I clicked them. Got over 60 friends already, so I couldn't be as much of an arse as I thought I was :P

Thought for the Day:

"Boredom is rage spread thin"

Paul Tillich

Paz

bEn

A fairly random post

2010-01-07T16:57:00.006Z

Just doing a bit of reading here today and thought I may as well make a quick post here to break up my time. I know it's been a while, but I think I've got lazy with the posting because so many of my entries are quite long winded. I'm going to try and make shorter posts which will hopefully encourage me to do so more consistently!

Training wise the last few months have been up and down. I managed to win the WDFPF unequipped juniors. Lifts as follows:

Squat: 215, 225, 232.5, 240

Bench: 135, 145 failed for early press, 145 (Annoyed at this as the 145 was easy, if I had just been more disciplined on my second attempt I could have pushed on a bit more)

Deadlift: 250, 265, - (Didn't make a third attempt as I was exhausted and the 265 was a grind anyways)

My back is still giving me bother, I've just come to accept that it probably will be messed for the rest of my life so I will just try and deal with it. I get some shocking cracks and crunches out of it every day, but they definitely help release some pressure.

At the moment I'm doing a student selected module in university on history of neurosciences. I'm reading a book for this called, "Making Up The Mind" by Chris Frith. There is some very heavy stuff in it, but interesting nonetheless. I could probably do with reading it twice to really get my head around it. I've to do a dissertation, but as of yet I'm really not too sure what neurologically related topic I will choose.

Something to liven this post up:

I will give the guy this, he has some balls posting up this video on youtube. His description is as follows:

"I started strength training a month before this video was taken. When I started, I was able to deadlift 245 before my grip gave out.

It wasn't my intention to do a stiff-legged deadlift, but that came out of my deadlift attempt. You form worshippers can feel free to post your current gains in the last month before your criticism of my surely damnation worthy form.

I know my form breaks and I lift partially with my rounded back which I'm sure sends me straight to hell. I lifted the next day and will continue to get stronger. Passing out had nothing to do with form and everything to do with getting stoked to a previously unimaginable level. You should try it sometime. I was still high off of the endorphins after my chin was stitched up."

Got to admire his determination, although I don't think it had too much to do with endorphins, moreso his blood pressure plummeting... Looked like a fairly painful faceplant though!

Training not so great at the moment. Got ANOTHER chest infection and feel seriously poo, so holding off on the gym side of things. This year I'm going single ply equipped and I'm currently awaiting a custom fit super katana from Titan. It should be some fun. It will cut the hell out of me though :(

That's me for now. Hopefully I won't be so lazy and will get round to posting more often. I'm always on and off with this blog thing nowadays!

Thought for the Day:

"How do you know, right now, that you are aware of being aware, or conscious?"

Henry Reed

Peace

bEn

Something I have always had trouble understanding

2009-10-18T18:07:00.006+01:00

This post isn't really a blog as such. I have spent the last week in neurology in the RVH and I have realized I am in dire need of a revision or at least basic understanding of the spinal tracts. For a start I never had a great understanding as I found neuroscience and neuroanatomy quite poorly taught in comparison to other aspects of physiology and anatomy in Queen's. I've found it hard to access a source online that puts what I want to know together. I have also found it difficult finding a basic guide that doesn't get too in depth. I remember making decent notes on this before, but misplaced them, so if I put it up here it can't be lost.

First I'm dividing things up into:

Motor Tracts

Sensory Tracts

Next I'll focus on Motor Tracts. These run down the spinal cord. They are named as follows:

1) Corticobulbar Pathway

- Begins in cerebral cortex and ends in the brainstem

- Runs through the internal capsule of the brain

- For simplicity, this pathway decussates in the midbrain (I think)

2) Corticospinal Pathway also known as the Pyramidal Motor System. It has a medial and lateral part.

- Cortico = cortex

- Spinal = spine

- So, this pathway runs from the cerebral cortex to synapse in the spine.

- Runs through the internal capsule of the brain

- For simplicity, this pathway decussates in the medulla, therefore will end on the opposite side of the spinal cord to its origin in the cortex

- Controls muscles of trunk and limbs

Sensory Tracts

These run up the spinal cord

1) Dorsal Columns

- Fine touch and vibration sensation

- Decussates in the medulla

2) Spinothalamic Tracts. These have anterior (ventral) and lateral parts

- Temperature and pain sensation - Lateral

- Coarse Touch - Anterior (Ventral)

- Decussates at level of entry in the spine

3) Spinocerebellar Tracts

- Proprioceptive Sense

- Decussates in medulla (I think)

In summary:

Motor

Corticobulbar Pathway

Corticospinal Pathway

- Medial corticospinal pathway

- Lateral corticospinal pathway

Sensory

Dorsal Columns

Spinothalamic Tracts

- Anterior (Ventral) Spinothalamic Tract

- Lateral Spinothalamic Tract

Spinocerebellar Tract

I did the above quite quickly, so I'm pretty sure there may be a few mistakes. Any corrections would be welcomed, as they would definitely make things easier clearer to me.

Peace

bEn

It's been aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages

2009-09-21T17:05:00.008+01:00

A looooooooong time since I have updated this. No excuse apart from being lazy, so I'll just get straight into things.

The last two weeks I've been back to uni and doing a sports medicine module in Musgrave Park Hospital. It's been very interesting, covering stuff like ankle, knee and shoulder injuries and things like diabetes and its management in sport. Today, in particular was very interesting and inspirational. Two disabled athletes spoke to us about their experience. Both were 27 years old, one had suffered a spinal injury at the age of 17 in a rugby match and the other a spinal injury at the age of 20 after falling from 10 feet. Their dedication and commitment really was something. When you hear how much they have to work through in order to just train it really puts most people to shame. These athletes really need to make sure everything is in place just to get to training. For example, making sure someone is at hand to help them in and out of their car, house, bed etc. The amount of rehabilitation they went through just to be able to gain some sort of function was unbelievable, and that's before they even began their training for sport. Besides the obvious mobility problems acting as an obstacle to sport there were then other things that added to the difficulty. Pressure sores and hand injuries that can go undetected due to lack of sensation, for example. Apparently there is a film called murderball about wheelchair rugby that gives a real insight into the sport. It's something I will check out.

In terms of my training, things have changed greatly. I am making the move into equipped lifting. I now train once a week at The Gym in Lisburn. I'm now lifting for this club, as Centaur Powerlifting Club sort of just fell apart. There seemed to be a lack of interest there. I'm loving training with like-minded people in Lisburn and I'm learning a lot. In my first day in the gear I couldn't get the straps up on the squat suit as it tended to throw me forward. lol. So I've been squatting straps down with light wraps and a belt. My first day I took 270kg off a box about an inch above parallel. Since that I've moved into a much looser suit and squatted 250kg for a few singles. I've ordered a pair of heavier Inzer wraps from Andy Bolton and these should arrive this week. When I learn how to squat equipped and learn how to control my strength in the gear I have no doubt 300+ is on the cards. Getting there will take a lot of patience and practice.

I had my first equipped competition yesterday and quite honestly, it was a disaster. I had to cut weight at short notice to make 110kg. I weighed in dry at 108.6kg. The lifts went as follows:

First attempt. 210kg, tough to touch, but my form was shite. Got about half way up and the bar went wonky. No lift

Second attempt. 210kg, easier to touch, felt tighter, again, off the chest then stalled. No lift

Third attempt. 210kg, felt great coming down, got my line and felt the shirt tighten up. Came off the chest well and thought I may have had a fighting chance. Due to the traction I was putting on the floor with my legs through my arch etc the bench slid along the floor. That was the end of that. No lift

Personally, I was embarrassed and disappointed by this performance. I don't understand why I underperformed so badly. When I got my hand offs and the weight settled on me it felt lighter than it ever has. By the time it got down and came to pressing I just felt gassed. I can only put it down to lack of practice and fatigue. It was only my sixth time in a shirt, so maybe I am being hard on myself. I know I can do better, two weeks prior I pressed 230 and I've had a good solid lockout with 240. At least now I know I'll be hitting the gym next time like a man possessed. lol

That's all for now. Hopefully won't be so long til I update again.

Thought for the Day:

PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT

Peace

bEn

Blehhhhh

2009-06-18T20:47:00.005+01:00

Straight after my last exam I headed into the town to train. I was squatting. Here's how it went:

These squats totally wrecked me, considering there were more sets of 160kg unbelted mixed in with them and to be honest I did probably push myself too hard. All the 160 were unbelted, the 220 belted. The week and a half or so since that I've only trained once or twice. Just taking it easy for a while. I've been working full time and sitting at a desk and I've found my back has locked up a little. I phoned to make an appointment with the guy I usually go to, but unfortunately he wasn't working either of the two days that I'm free, so I'm going to have to be careful with my back until I can find time to get to Dunmurry to see him and have my back looked at.

I took today off and I'm working all day tomorrow and then heading out to dinner with Laura, so I'll do a bit of accessory work on Saturday. Goodmornings are up to 130kg unbelted, so I may take a video of them, only if they don't look exceedingly ugly though... :P

This is just a quick entry, should be making another in the next few days.

Thought for the Day:

"Are you tired of sand being kicked in your face? I promise you new muscles in days! "

Charles Atlas

Peace

bEn

Some brief anatomy - Overview of Skeletal Musculature

2009-05-24T19:31:00.007+01:00

When I first started doing a bit of weight training I was often confused about the muscle groups that people referred to. 4 hours weekly in the dissection room has solved that problem for me, but I'm just going to put this up for anyone to have a look at if they are ever wondering what exact muscle someone is referring to.

1: Scalene muscles and sternocleidomastoid

2: Pectoralis major aka "pecs" (Pecs also encompasses pectoralis minor, but in gym terms, just pectoralis major)

3: Deltoid aka "delts", "the cannonballs"

4: Awkward. Look closely, there are 3 arrows from no. 4. Working in a clockwise direction, in order; serratus anterior, rectus abdominis aka "abs", "six pack", "washboard", external obliques

5: Biceps brachii aka "the guns" (Biceps is both singular and plural. eg a biceps, two biceps)

6: Looks to be indicating flexors of forearm. Of which there are many. These close the fingers and flex the wrist.

7: Rectus femoris aka "quads" (Strictly speaking, only one of multiple quadriceps muscles. Vastus lateralis to the outside of this forms the "teardrop" you hear talked about)

8: Looks to be indicating adductor muscles. Again, a few of these (Adductor magnus, adductor brevis, pectinus, adductor longus)

9: I say tibialis anterior. (Compartment syndrome of tibialis anterior is also known as "shin splints" This is due to compression of the muscle, stopping metabolic by-products escaping. Can also cause ischaemic (lack of oxygen) pain)

10: Gastrocnemius aka "calves"

11: Trapezius aka "traps"

12: Triceps brachii, aka "the guns" (As with biceps, triceps is both singular and plural)

13: Latissimus dorsi aka "lats", "the wings"

14: You could argue this is latissimus dorsi again. The colour difference and fibre direction suggests that the diagram is indicating serratus posterior inferior

15: Gluteus Maximus aka "glutes","the booty/bootay", "the arse" (One of 3 gluteal muscles. Deep to gluteus maximus there is also gluteus medius and gluteus minimus)

16: Biceps femoris aka "hamstring" (One of 3 hamstring muscles, the other 2 being semitendinosus and semimembranosus)

Thought for the Day:

"So, if anatomy is destiny, then testosterone is doom"

Al Goldstein

Peace

bEn

A little contemplation

2009-05-20T00:23:00.003+01:00

Well, recently I've been thinking a little more about where my training is going in the next few years and what my aims are. It's becoming more and more likely that I'll make a transition to strongman. The only obstacle right now is a lack of equipment for use. Paul and I have been chatting a lot about things and hopefully it won't be long before we'll have a few bits and pieces that will be useful in terms of more specific strongman training.

Over the summer I'm hoping to get up to Donegal and supplement my training with some stone lifting on the beach up there. Should be good in terms of getting used to lifting awkward objects and gaining a bit more functional strength. Besides that it will be a good laugh.

I totally forgot to mention I received my schedule for next year. Third year consists of mainly placement. Mine is as follows:

OPH1 Royal Victoria Week 05 (28 Sept)

OPH2 Royal Victoria Week 06 (5 Oct)

NS Royal Victoria Week 07 (12 Oct)

END Royal Victoria Week 09 (26 Oct)

HAEM Belfast City Week 10 (2 Nov)

DERM Royal Victoria Week 11 (9 Nov)

NEPH Belfast City Week 12 (16 Nov)

MS Musgrave Park Week 14 (30 Nov)

ENT Royal Victoria Week 20 (25 Jan)

GS Altnagelvin Week 22 (8 Feb)

GM Altnagelvin Week 29 (12 Apr)

I think I got pretty lucky with my placements. All in Belfast, apart from Altnagelvin. I plan on moving to Derry for my placement in Altnagelvin and living in the student accomodation at the hospital. Means I'll need to find a good gym over there! A couple of my mates are from Derry and they are on placement there at the same time as I am, so I'm sure they can show me the ropes and recommend a few gyms.

That's it for now. I haven't got much time to write seeing as I really should be getting to bed as I have a load of studying to do tomorrow.

Thought for the Day:

"Every choice you make has an end result."

Zig Ziglar

Peace

bEn

Look Alikes

2009-05-17T21:54:00.002+01:00

Jon Heder, aka Napoleon Dynamite and Tom Petty :)

Paz

bEn

Why Poliquin (Loliquin) is a numpty in some ways

2009-05-16T17:11:00.011+01:00

Well, recently I've been reading a bit of strength and conditioning material and have come across biosignature, a concept "invented" by Charles Poliquin, a very famous strength and conditioning coach.

From what I gauged the idea behind it was that by manipulation of the diet you can alter hormone levels in such a way that changes will be visible by a change in your physique. One of the claims including "spot reduction" of body fat. Spot reduction meaning that you can target one area of the body and lose fat just there, but not elsewhere. Many people are ranting and raving about this "new" concept, but seeing as I'm a cynical bastard I thought it was a little too good to be true and that I'd read what I could before I came to any conclusions. Until recently I used to post on Men's Health forums and I questioned the concept there. A day later I was approached in the gym by someone requesting that I not question Poliquin's material on Men's Health. In effect it was an attempt to censor me. Fair enough, I thought that some questioning may have been welcomed....it is a forum after all?? I decided to leave the forum seeing as I was being told I shouldn't ask/question one of these things that actually interests me.

I had to have my say on this, so I figured I'd do it on my own site :)

Biosignature seems to be held tightly under wraps by Loliquin, I mean Poliquin, and this is one of the things which bothered me. Those that go on the biosignature course spend a lot of money and sign documents to ensure they will not discuss biosignature outside of the course....so, if you actually want a proper explanation of the concept, you need to throw your hard earned cash at good old Charles. Hmmmm, a great money spinner I think? EVERYONE wants to know how they can target awkward fat areas, so it doesn't surprise me that people shell out money for the course he is offering.

As with most things, my first port of call was medline and pubmed, sites with a seemingly infinite amount of peer-reviewed scientific literature. I searched for biosignature and nothing relative to Poliquin's material came up. So....first point is that he has no published, peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support his biosignature model. I could stop here, as I have effectively discredited the whole thing already, but being the way I am I'd like to go into a bit more depth and poke more holes in it.

I have heard a few things about biosignature and some of those things did worry and actually annoy me. Charles Poliquin is an accomplished strength and conditioning coach, nothing more. He is NOT a doctor, he shouldn't be giving out some of the health advice he does.

From what I have read, Poliquin does a so-called acid test and in some literature I have read his rants about how the majority of people have too little acid in their stomachs and so cannot utilise all the food they are consuming. A few points on this:

1)If this is the case why do so so many people present to doctors with peptic ulcer disease??? If they have too little acid then how how is it burning holes in the epithelium of their stomach and duodenum?

2) Loliquin goes on to say how increased acid will prevent bacterial infections such as helicobacter pylori. Helicobacter pylori is an organism inextricably linked with peptic ulcer disease. Now, what if someone, who already has helicobacter pylori associated peptic ulcers takes Loliquin's acid advice and takes an acid supplement? Yep, more ulcers and a good chance of a hole appearing in their gut wall. Another complication of this is a GI bleed. The gastroduodenal artery runs right behind the duodenum. See diagram.

If an ulcer progresses to rupture here the acid will get to work on the wall of the artery and end up with a good bit of bleeding. This will land you in hospital and on an operating table.

3) Helicobacter pylori should not be treated by taking more acid. It is treated using a proton pump inhibitor in combination with another medication. A proton pump inhibitor will inhibit the pumping of acid into the stomach. So, treating helicobacter eradication involves decreasing acid, not increasing it. Again, if someone takes Loliquin's advice then they could just make things worse. Therapy for helicobacter pylori from the BNF:

"A two-week regimen comprising a proton pump inhibitor (e.g. omeprazole 20 mg twice daily) plus tripotassium dicitratobismuthate 120 mg four times daily, plus tetracycline 500 mg four times daily, plus metronidazole 400 mg three times daily can be used for eradication failure. Alternatively, the patient can be referred for endoscopy and treatment based on the results of culture and sensitivity testing."

4) Millions of people are obese, if they have too little acid in their stomachs to digest food then how are they getting obese???? DUH Charles

5) Now, let's agree with Charles for one second, ie increase your acid then you'll increase digestion, therefore utilization of food and therefore get bigger. This means that acid levels are the so called rate limiting factor of gaining mass. In other words, if you improve acid levels beyond a point then something else will limit your gains, but as things are, it's acid that is the problem. If this is the case, then guys who take steroids, but not increase their acid wouldn't get bigger..... (this is assuming testosterone has no effects on acid balance) This obviously isn't the case, therefore acid levels really aren't hindering your gains much at all

6) Money again....guess who sells supplements that correct all the problems that Loliquin identifies. Yep, you guessed it, good ol' Charles himself.

As regards diet and hormone levels...I can see how a diet can change levels of hormones in the body, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that manipulation of diet will change hormone levels so much that they will be visible as a change in body composition, fat distribution or shape. Maybe a diet that promotes a lower insulin secretion will have a shout in this regard, but not much else. Perhaps also oestrogen. If you lived on 10 pints of beer daily for a while you would probably see some moobs and abdominal adiposity increase. Then again, beer contains oestrogen, so it's not really the food or drink itself that is promoting a hormonal change via an endogenous physiological process. Swallowing the hormone will change your hormone levels, not quite as complex as what Loliquin is suggesting

I also noticed that Loliquin seems to have taken pathological states and applied them to his biosignature model. Take a person with Cushing's syndrome. This is a condition in which there is hypersecretion or excess of glucocorticoids. Cortisol is one of these glucocorticoids. Loliquin says that he can identify someone with cortisol excess by their abdominal adiposity. Guess what the typical appearance of someone with Cushing's syndrome is? Hmmm...see the picture below.

Next he'll be saying he can fix your moon face and buffalo hump by diet adjustment.

This concludes my rant. Don't believe everything you read, especially if it's some quack that goes by the name of Poliquin. I'm sorry Charlie, you're a strength and conditioning coach, no more. If you want to play doctor get a degree that says you can.

Disclaimer: If have misunderstood elements of biosignature, that would be Charles fault, as he won't let people legally explain it :)

Thought for the Day:

"Don't quack like a duck, soar like an eagle"

Ken Blanchard

Peace

bEn

Low GI Dissertation

2009-05-11T00:24:00.016+01:00

Low GI – The Ideal Weight Loss Diet? Ben Loughrey, Medical Student

Abstract

Obesity and diabetes are now considered as two of the main issues in public health. Diet has long been associated with health and as a result, many diets have been devised in attempt to improve the health of the general population. There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating diet, two of which are the glycaemic index (GI) of the diet and the glycaemic load (GL) of the diet. There is some controversy surrounding these factors and there is yet to be a definitive answer as to whether a diet based on low GI and GL foods will have any health benefits or assist in weight loss. Low GI diets have been proposed to have benefits towards cardiovascular risk factors, development of diabetes and obesity (1). Several studies have demonstrated benefits of a low GI diet over the conventional low fat high carbohydrate diet and adherence to a low GI diet and exercise appears to be a reasonable alternative in the future of weight management.

Introduction

Obesity is a major public health issue in many Western countries and could soon come to have impacts further afield as social attitudes to food and consumerism change worldwide. Along with the direct effects of obesity such as hyperinsulinaemia, insulin resistance and hypertriglyceridaemia, there are also secondary public health issues to consider, such as cancer, cardiovascular incidents and mental health problems. The search is continuing for the optimum diet to reduce or control all of these risk factors. One of the diets thought to do this is a low GI or low GL diet.

Now that obesity rates are continuing to rise, physicians are now seeking out more efficient methods of weight loss and the concept of a low GI diet has come to the fore. The GI was first introduced in 1981 by Jenkins et al. as an attempt to manage the health of diabetic patients (2,3). Large meta-analyses are beginning to be presented and low GI diets have been tested in the management of obesity (1,5-10) and have shown some promise. Prescription of a low GI diet may be a better option than current dietary guidelines in decreasing obesity and obesity related morbidities. This paper examines the evidence for and against the prescription of a low GI or low GL diet for weight loss.

Definition of Low Glycaemic Index and Low Glycaemic Load

The GI represents a measure of the glycaemic response to ingestion of a fixed amount of carbohydrate in a food under question to a reference food, which is normally white bread or glucose (3,6,11). It is important to note that glycaemic index is specific to an individual (3), which is something that is impractical to take into account when performing studies on larger populations. Another way to describe GI is “the incremental area under the glucose response curve after the intake of 50g of carbohydrate from a test food compared with the area under the glucose curve induced by the same amount of carbohydrates from ingested glucose” (2,12). The values of GI therefore range from 0-100 with glucose or white bread being equivalent to 100 and a food or drink such as water equivalent to 0.

GL is slightly different and can be defined as the product of GI and the amount of available carbohydrate (10). Some studies have quoted GL as being a more valuable measure of glycaemic response (3).

Although GI and GL have been clearly defined there is yet to be a definitive statement on when a GI or GL value can be classified as high or low.

Factors Affecting the GI of Foods

The GI and physiological effects of a food are influenced by the contents of the food itself and its method of preparation. Most obviously, a food higher in glucose and other more easily digestible sugars will be more likely to elicit an accentuated glycaemic response.

Fat and protein also influence the GI of a food. Jenkins et al found a significant negative relationship between protein (r=-0.523, p<0.001) r="-0.386,">

Jenkins et al originally concluded that dietary fibre had no relationship with glycaemic index (2). Later studies have confirmed that GI is not influenced by fibre, but rather by alteration of the internal structure of the food (5). Pawlak et al used the example of comparing the GI of white bread to the GI of wholemeal bread, the result being 70 vs. 69 respectively (5). At least one study has increased fibre in an interventional trial in order to decrease the GI of the diet in question (12). This makes the results of such studies questionable.

Riccardi et al looked in detail at the ability of food properties to reduce alpha-amylase accessibility and therefore their impact on GI (12). Viscosity, resistant starch, sugars and dietary fibres were ruled out as influences on post-prandial glycaemia. Porosity however, was said to increase GI by allowing a greater surface area of food to be exposed to digestive enzymes (12). This may also contribute to the high GI of bread. Riccardi et al also note the importance of the method of food preparation in influencing the GI of a meal (12).

Hormonal Effects of GI

The hormone most obviously influenced by GI is insulin. Numerous studies have found that high GI meals tend to cause post-prandial hyperinsulinaemia (6,8,10). The anabolic effects of insulin include lipogenesis and increased fatty acid uptake (10). Insulin also has the anti-catabolic effect of inhibiting lipolysis (10). By decreasing GI and therefore insulin secretion, a decrease in fat mass is targeted. Prolonged exposure to a high GI diet resulting in chronic hyperinsulinaemia is thought to be a mechanism in diabetogenesis (13) and increased cardiovascular disease risk (Figure 1) (12). Through insulin, GI could also have secondary effects on the hormone leptin via action with other neuropeptides (11). It has been speculated that a high GI meal acts with these neuropeptides act to increase leptin concentrations, in turn having an anorectic effect (11).

Figure 1

Increased cardiovascular risk imposed by high GI foods. (12)

Low GI meals have been found to induce greater amounts of cholecystokinin and glucagon-like peptide 1 secretion (8,13). Cholecystokinin is a hormone which activates pancreatic enzyme production and secretion, contraction of the gall bladder and promotes a decrease in food intake, all of which benefit a negative energy balance.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 has been linked to GI in a similar way to cholecystokinin (8). Because lower GI foods spend a longer time in the duodenum they are thought to increase the feedback of glucagon-like peptide-1 to the satiety centre in the brain (14). The beneficial actions of these hormones on the satiety centre in the brain lend support to the use of a low GI diet in the ad libitum unsupervised setting that people live in.

Negative hormonal effects of a high GI diet include increases in cortisol and noradrenaline as a counter-regulatory mechanism (8) to increase blood glucose and prevent rebound hypoglycaemia.

Hypothesised Benefits of Low GI Diets

Weight Loss and GI

It is important to note that whilst many diets fulfil their targets of weight loss, many of them do so in an unhealthy way. A low GI diet has been proposed as a more healthy way to control and lose weight. The main arguments for low GI diets are that they encourage weight loss due to increased satiety (7), lower post-prandial insulin peaks (8), maintain the sensitivity of the body to insulin (8,10), preserve lean mass (15-17) and decrease central adiposity(8).

The hypothesised effect of a low GI diet on satiety is one of the factors that supports the application of low GI in a clinical setting. In everyday life patients have the option to eat as much of what they want and when they want. A low GI diet has been hypothesised to have beneficial effects when administered in an ad libitum setting. A feeling of satiety due to a lower GI may be down to two reasons; the physical presence of food in the stomach and duodenum and the effects of the food on blood glucose levels via hormonal pathways previously alluded to in this paper (13).

Riccardi et al acknowledged the benefits demonstrated thus far by short term studies of GI and satiety, but speculated over the longer term effects of a low or reduced GI diet on satiety and whether any correlation would have enough power to influence weight loss (12).

Buyken et al examined the breakfast dietary habits at ages 2, 4-5 and 7 years old of 381 children (11). At all of these ages a lower GI breakfast was associated with a shorter time to a subsequent meal (Figure 2) (11). The supposedly short term satiating effects of a high GI breakfast also persisted throughout the day and so performed better in satiety than a low GI breakfast (11). Despite these results Buyken et al list numerous factors which may have skewed their results including a small sample in the higher GI tertile (n=33), differing protein content amongst groups and an inability to adjust for physical activity (11).

Figure 2

Results of time to second meal according to tertile of GI. “Mean and 95% CI shown and adjusted for energy, energy-adjusted residuals of carbohydrate and protein, and consumption of caloric beverages (in grams) at breakfast. Group 4-5 years also adjusted for age”(11)

Ball et al had conflicting results to Buyken et al when examining variation in satiety in response to a low GI meal replacement, a low GI whole food meal and a moderately high GI meal replacement (18). Ball et al used three indices to assess satiety; hunger scales, time to snack platter requests and voluntary energy intake (18). Interestingly, the different scales produced varying results representative of satiety. The hunger scale showed no difference in satiety between meals, as did voluntary energy and macronutrient intake, but food was requested sooner after the moderately high GI meal replacement. The most significant result in time to snack request was between the low GI meal replacement and the high GI meal replacement (p ≤ 0.01) (18). Despite the significant result in time to snack request, the number of snacks requested by subjects was the same by the time the following meal was presented (18). Ball et al hypothesised that these results may be because there is no satiety difference between low and moderately high GI meals or that intake of food could be modulated by external cues more so than hunger (18).

Whilst most studies assess satiety according to subsequent meal consumption there may be social and cultural influences which influence the intake of food. Some subjects may simply eat more frequently out of habit and so consume more food regardless of the GI. Likewise, a similar situation could skew any attempt to assess satiety using visual analogue scales, such as in the study by de Rougement et al (1).

According to Pittas et al a low GI diet allowed more weight loss in overweight individuals with relatively higher insulin secretion than those who were overweight with low insulin secretion (10). Thirty two participants completed the trial and the necessary measurements over a six month period (10). Those with a high baseline insulin value thirty minutes after a 75g oral glucose tolerance test (INS-30) lost more weight when on a low GI diet (p<0.05)(10).>und in those with a low INS-30 result, although the difference was not significant (p = 0.25) (10).

Raatz et al conducted a thirty six week prospective, three arm, parallel group trial of which twenty two of a potential forty two participants completed (6). Six subjects were assigned to a low GI diet, eight to a high GI and eight to a high fat (HF) diet (6). Each diet was hypocaloric and separated into a twelve week feeding phase proceeded by a twenty four week free-living phase (6). After 12 weeks each group had lost weight (p<0.001),> greater improvement than the HF group (6). On completion of the study Raatz et al found that weight loss was independent of diet composition and so concluded that lowering the GL and GI of a diet did not have added benefit to weight loss in obese subjects (6). This conclusion is unjustified, as at twenty four weeks the GIs of the diets differed (p=0.014) and after thirty six weeks the glycaemic indices of the groups did not differ (p = 0.14) (6). Three diets of similar GI were effectively being compared against one another for the final twelve weeks of the study, thus calling into question the conclusions drawn.

A further study examining the influence of GL on weight loss provided evidence that a reduced GL diet could be used in alternative to the conventional low-fat hypocaloric diet (9). In this study, after thirty six weeks the reduced GL group had lost more weight than the control group, although not significant (p=0.684). The amount of fat mass lost was significant at the thirty six week point, with the reduced GL group losing 2.1kg±0.3kg and the control group losing 0.9kg±0.3kg (p=0.004) (9). Whether the loss of fat free mass was lean tissue or water was not stated in the literature.

In recent years health professionals have begun to move away from the use of BMI in assessing obesity status. Instead, a waist to hip ratio is becoming more commonly used, as central adiposity is a being accepted as a better indicator of health.

Brand-Miller et al state that the overall GI of a diet is an independent predictor of waist circumference in men and thus a low GI diet may act to decrease abdominal adiposity (8). In a study identified by Raben et al, there was no difference in bodyweight and ad libitum energy intake, but there was a decrease in fat mass, mainly in the abdominal area on a low GI diet (7). This finding also suggests that a low GI diet could help increase the lean mass of the body.

Raatz et al also found the results from ten subjects on a low GI diet in a 36 week trial showed a decrease in body fat with a preservation of lean mass. This result may be partially explained by trends showing that low GI foods cause preferential fat oxidation (19).

In a number of longer term studies a low GI diet has been found to not only encourage immediate weight loss, but also to outperform a low fat diet in the maintenance of weight loss (5,6,8).

GI and Diabetes

GI is closely associated with diabetes and was first introduced as a means of management of diabetic patients (2). Diets with a high GI tend to cause post-prandial hyperinsulinaemia. This in turn results in weight gain as the anabolic effects of insulin include lipogenesis and increased fatty acid uptake (10). Insulin also has the anti-catabolic effect of inhibiting lipolysis (10). By decreasing the GI or GL of a diet greater control may be exercised over post-prandial insulin and may potentially protect against the development of type II diabetes (Figure 3) (12).

Figure 3

Diagrammatic representation of hypothesised influence of high GL on type II diabetes. (12)

A study on sixty three type I diabetes patients assigned to a low GI, high fibre diet or a high GI, low fibre diet found that the low GI high fibre diet decreased mean daily blood glucose concentrations (p<0.05)>nce of hypoglycaemia (p<0.01)>

De Rougement et al found no significant increase in insulin sensitivity after prescription of a low GI diet in overweight non-diabetic subjects (1); however Pittas et al found that a low GL diet was of more benefit to hyperinsulinaemic patients (10). Slabber et al also found similar results in a trial of thirty two obese hyperinsulinaemic women (20). However, certain conclusions can be drawn on these potential positive effects of low GL diets as further trials are required using larger numbers of patients (10).

GI and Serum Lipids

Hyperlipidaemia is another major public health issue and is a complication related to the conventional low fat diet. A number of studies have found beneficial effects of a low GI on serum cholesterol and serum triglycerides (3,9). This potential benefit of a low GI diet may indicate that it should be utilised in preference to a low fat diet.

Insulin has the effect of stimulating VLDL cholesterol synthesis, therefore a low GI or low GL that decreases insulin secretion would be expected to have positive effects on serum VLDL cholesterol and thus cardiovascular risk factors (9).

Mosdol et al found an inverse relationship of both GI and GL with HDL cholesterol and a direct relationship with GI and serum triglycerides (3). This prospective study was carried out on 7321 participants over a period of 13 years (3). After adjusting for alcohol intake, smoking status, physical activity and employment grade the relationship of GI and GL with HDL cholesterol remained, although after adjusting for fibre and carbohydrate intakes the significance of the results was markedly decreased (3).

Ludwig et al examined potential relationships between dietary GI and obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in a meta-analysis of 13 interventional studies (13). The majority of these studies demonstrated a low GI diet to have beneficial effects on serum triglycerides, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (Figure 4) (13). Ludwig et al also found increased serum free fatty acid concentrations after consumption of a high GI meal and hypothesised that this may impair the function of pancreatic beta cells by the process of lipotoxicity (13)

Figure 4

Percentage change in lipid concentration in comparison of a low GI diet with a high GI diet (13).

Harbis et al investigated the effect of hyperinsulinism on apolipoprotein B-48 and found a positive relationship between an acute insulin response and post-prandial apolipoprotein B-48 levels (20). If these results were applied to dietary advice then a low GI diet would be favoured in order to avoid elevated insulin and resultant apolipoprotein B-48 increase.

In a randomised control trial undertaken by Maki et al forty three subjects were prescribed an ad libitum reduced GL diet and forty three a low-fat portion-controlled diet (9). Subjects who were following the reduced GL diet had higher total, saturated and unsaturated fat intakes than the participants who followed the low fat portion controlled diet. The differences in the fat intakes of the groups, however, were not significant. Mean dietary cholesterol was also higher in the reduced GL group than in the other arm of the study (p<0.001). p="0.037)">

De Rougemont et al discovered slightly different variations in serum cholesterol following a five-week interventional trial on thirty eight overweight non-diabetic subjects (1). Nineteen subjects were assigned to a low GI (<50)>70) diet (1). Those following the low GI diet had a significant 8.6% decrease in LDL-cholesterol compared to a 3.7% decrease in the high GI arm of the study (1). Contrary to other study results the low GI arm of the study had a decrease of 2.5% in HDL-cholesterol (1). Considering the decrease in HDL cholesterol, the low GI was still superior in improving lipid profile because of the large decrease in LDL-cholesterol improving the lipid ratios and thus cardiovascular risk (1).

Despite a number of studies discovering positive effects of dietary GI on serum lipids, a prospective study undertaken by Abete et al found no significant changes in serum lipids when comparing a higher GI diet to a lower GI diet (22) (Table 1).

Table 1. Results of an eight week trial of dietary GI on serum lipids. Adapted from Abete et al. (22)

	Higher-GI diet (n=16)		Lower-GI diet (n=16)
	Baseline	Change (%)	Baseline	Change (%)	Statistical Significance between baseline points	Statistical significance between changes (%)
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	181 ± 34	-3.5 ± 10.6	215 ± 37	-14.4 ±10.5	0.014	1.010
LDL-c (mg/dl)	112 ± 29	-3.2 ± 14.3	136 ± 5	-15.9 ± 16.6	0.124	0.037
HDL-c (mg/dl	51 ± 9	-5.5 ±14.9	50 ± 12	-9.7 ± 8.1	0.935	0.348
Triglycerides (mg/dl)	89 ± 28	5.1 ± 40.8	97 ± 36	-2.4 ± 18.0	0.513	0.531

Effects of GI on Mitochondrial Oxidation

Abete et al. examined the association between GI and mitochondrial oxidation using the 2-keto[1-¹³C]isocaproate breath test (22). 2-keto[1-¹³C]isocaproate is a keto acid metabolised exclusively by mitochondria. By measuring the decarboxylation of this compound the rate of mitochondrial oxidation can be estimated (22). The results were significant for both the subjects prescribed the low GI diet and those prescribed the high GI diet (22). In those who had undertaken the low GI diet 2-keto[1-¹³C]isocaproate oxidation was significantly increased (p=0.022) and in those who had undertaken the high GI diet 2-keto[1-¹³C]isocaproate oxidation was also significantly decreased (p=0.022) (22).

After further separate regression analyses Abete et al (22) found that the lower GI diet increased mitochondrial oxidation by 3.5-fold in comparison to the higher GI diet (corrected r² = 0.61; p<0.001).>

Figure 5

Percentage changes in mitochondrial oxidation are displayed to the right. The asterisks demonstrate that mitochondrial oxidation was significantly altered after nutritional intervention (22).

Despite the promising results of this study on mitochondrial oxidation, the study was small, with only thirty-two obese subjects participating in the trial and a study power on the lower border of conventionally acceptable (80%) was targeted. Abete et al. also used legumes to reduce the GI of the subjects’ diets rather than altering the actual carbohydrate constituents themselves (22). Therefore, it is possible that the changes observed may not be due to the difference in GI, but due to constituents of the legumes, for example minerals or antioxidants.

Conclusion

From a thorough analysis of available literature there appears to be a lot of evidence supporting administration of low GI foods to support weight loss, particularly in overweight and obese subjects. Studies have found that a low GI diet can positively influence HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, improve mitochondrial oxidation and aid long term weight loss.

Although studies display many positive aspects to a low GI diet, most of the trials conducted on patients did not use any indicators of quality of life, one of the most important aspects to take into consideration when amending lifestyle factors in patient care. There are many conflicting results in studies examining the affects of a low GI diet in weight loss, but in all studies a low GI diet did produce weight loss and in the majority it performed as well, or better than a low fat diet. In studies on low GI and serum lipids a low GI had benefits in improving lipid profile, something which supports its use in preference to a low fat diet. After considering the study on mitochondrial oxidation and low GI by Abete et al (22) it would be premature to conclude that a low GI diet has benefits in mitochondrial oxidation.

In conclusion, from the results available, a low GI diet is a good alternative to the conventional low fat, high carbohydrate diet and results suggest good patient compliance. It appears to display all the positive weight loss benefits of a low fat, high carbohydrate diet, without adverse affects on indicators of cardiovascular wellbeing (11). It cannot yet be considered the ideal weight loss diet, but prescription of a low GI diet along with exercise should be investigated further by health authorities as a modern alternative to the currently recommended low fat diet, high carbohydrate diet.

References

(1) de Rougemont A, Normand S, Nazare JA, Skilton MR, Sothier M, Vinoy S, et al. Beneficial effects of a 5-week low-glycaemic index regimen on weight control and cardiovascular risk factors in overweight non-diabetic subjects. Br.J.Nutr. 2007 Dec;98(6):1288-1298.

(2) Jenkins DJ, Wolever TM, Taylor RH, Barker H, Fielden H, Baldwin JM, et al. Glycemic index of foods: a physiological basis for carbohydrate exchange. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 1981 Mar;34(3):362-366.

(3) Mosdol A, Witte DR, Frost G, Marmot MG, Brunner EJ. Dietary glycemic index and glycemic load are associated with high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol at baseline but not with increased risk of diabetes in the Whitehall II study. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):988-994.

(4) Thomas DE, Elliott EJ, Baur L. Low glycaemic index or low glycaemic load diets for overweight and obesity. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007(3):005105.

(5) Pawlak DB, Ebbeling CB, Ludwig DS. Should obese patients be counselled to follow a low-glycaemic index diet? Yes.[see comment]. Obesity Reviews 2002 Nov;3(4):235-243.

(6) Raatz SK, Torkelson CJ, Redmon JB, Reck KP, Kwong CA, Swanson JE, et al. Reduced glycemic index and glycemic load diets do not increase the effects of energy restriction on weight loss and insulin sensitivity in obese men and women. J.Nutr. 2005 Oct;135(10):2387-2391.

(7) Raben A. Should obese patients be counselled to follow a low-glycaemic index diet? No.[see comment]. Obesity Reviews 2002 Nov;3(4):245-256.

(8) Brand-Miller JC, Holt SH, Pawlak DB, McMillan J. Glycemic index and obesity. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2002 Jul;76(1):281S-5S.

(9) Maki KC, Rains TM, Kaden VN, Raneri KR, Davidson MH. Effects of a reduced-glycemic-load diet on body weight, body composition, and cardiovascular disease risk markers in overweight and obese adults. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2007 Mar;85(3):724-734.

(10) Pittas AG, Das SK, Hajduk CL, Golden J, Saltzman E, Stark PC, et al. A low-glycemic load diet facilitates greater weight loss in overweight adults with high insulin secretion but not in overweight adults with low insulin secretion in the CALERIE Trial. Diabetes Care 2005 Dec;28(12):2939-2941.

(11) Buyken AE, Trauner K, Gunther AL, Kroke A, Remer T. Breakfast glycemic index affects subsequent daily energy intake in free-living healthy children. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):980-987.

(12) Riccardi G, Rivellese AA, Giacco R. Role of glycemic index and glycemic load in the healthy state, in prediabetes, and in diabetes. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):269S-274S.

(13) Ludwig DS. The glycemic index: physiological mechanisms relating to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.[see comment]. JAMA 2002 May 8;287(18):2414-2423.

(14) Lavin JH, Wittert GA, Andrews J, Yeap B, Wishart JM, Morris HA, et al. Interaction of insulin, glucagon-like peptide 1, gastric inhibitory polypeptide, and appetite in response to intraduodenal carbohydrate. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 1998 Sep;68(3):591-598.

(15) Bouche C, Rizkalla SW, Luo J, Vidal H, Veronese A, Pacher N, et al. Five-week, low-glycemic index diet decreases total fat mass and improves plasma lipid profile in moderately overweight nondiabetic men. Diabetes Care 2002 May;25(5):822-828.

(16) Stevenson E, Williams C, Nute M. The influence of the glycaemic index of breakfast and lunch on substrate utilisation during the postprandial periods and subsequent exercise. Br.J.Nutr. 2005 Jun;93(6):885-893.

(17) Wee SL, Williams C, Tsintzas K, Boobis L. Ingestion of a high-glycemic index meal increases muscle glycogen storage at rest but augments its utilization during subsequent exercise. J.Appl.Physiol. 2005 Aug;99(2):707-714.

(18) Ball SD, Keller KR, Moyer-Mileur LJ, Ding YW, Donaldson D, Jackson WD. Prolongation of satiety after low versus moderately high glycemic index meals in obese adolescents. Pediatrics 2003 Mar;111(3):488-494.

(19) Wolever TM, Gibbs AL, Mehling C, Chiasson JL, Connelly PW, Josse RG, et al. The Canadian Trial of Carbohydrates in Diabetes (CCD), a 1-y controlled trial of low-glycemic-index dietary carbohydrate in type 2 diabetes: no effect on glycated hemoglobin but reduction in C-reactive protein. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):114-125.

(20) Slabber M, Barnard HC, Kuyl JM, Dannhauser A, Schall R. Effects of a low-insulin-response, energy-restricted diet on weight loss and plasma insulin concentrations in hyperinsulinemic obese females. Am.J.Clin.Nutr. 1994 Jul;60(1):48-53.

(21) Harbis A, Defoort C, Narbonne H, Juhel C, Senft M, Latge C, et al. Acute hyperinsulinism modulates plasma apolipoprotein B-48 triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in healthy subjects during the postprandial period. Diabetes 2001 Feb;50(2):462-469.

(22) Abete I, Parra D, Martinez JA. Energy-restricted diets based on a distinct food selection affecting the glycemic index induce different weight loss and oxidative response. Clinical Nutrition 2008 Aug;27(4):545-551.

Another boring day

2009-05-10T22:48:00.008+01:00

Got up late today seeing as I woke up feeling crap. Throat infection has moved south and has succeeded in making its way into my chest. As per usual when you've got a chest infection I got up and spent a few minutes coughing up green. A lovely way to start the morning... I had hoped to maybe fit in a cheeky training session today, but no such luck. I got up and had a breakfast of Jaffa cakes and coffee and proceeded to try and study. On that note, the last couple of days my protein intake has probably been like 25g. Tbh I don't care, I really can't face eating a load of chicken, eggs or downing a shake. The thought of it makes me nauseous.

I began looking over some exit past papers. That didn't go well. I got to the second case and ended up painstakingly slogging through the questions referring to text books and notes etc. I gave up on this and tried to do some anatomy. This went a bit better and then I got bored with it. Read a bit of stuff on neoplasms and then finished up with some microbiology. All in all, not the best day's revision, but then again, by no means the worst.

It's nearly 2300 here now and I'm about to start watching the next episode of The Ultimate Fighter. It's pretty sweet so far. Unlike most I actually really like Michael Bisping. He is stirring it up and it's pretty funny to watch him get inside some guys heads and make them freak out. lol.

I'd like to upload my low GI dissertation to this blog, though with the current layout that would be a nightmare. I'm going to try and find a decent template to use which will broaden the space I have to write in. That way by putting the article up it won't last an eternity down the page. Bear with me in case this goes wrong and my blog goes boobs up for a while.

Thought for the Day:

"Boredom is rage spread thin"

Paul Tillich

Peace

bEn

Snag

2009-05-09T21:55:00.006+01:00

Well, everything was sort of beginning to pick up a bit. Both training and studying had started to pick up some sort of pattern, but unfortunately it looks like I've been hit by a throat infection. I seem to be pretty prone to these the last year or so. Not sure why. My sister has had glandular fever recently and I have been over home twice whilst she was sick. One of those times I sat in the living room watching football after she had been in there all day. The room was probably full of Epstein Barr virus. lol. I just hope I haven't managed to catch it or else my exams are fudged. Last few days I've been wrecked and today was spent in bed trying to read over some lectures without falling asleep :(

Going to watch a film tonight and hopefully I'll feel a bit better in the morning. I'll probably read an article on cancer that's been recommended to us as well. Hopefully it's not too dry.

Got a new phone this week. I'd been toying with the idea of getting an iPhone, though two weeks after ordering it I had no word from O2 and ended up cancelling the order. I had a look around to see what else was on offer and decided to get a Blackberry. I've been having a bit of trouble with the software I got with it though. I installed it off the disc, but it hasn't actually worked. Just going through the process of uninstalling then reinstalling it then hopefully it works. Bit of a pain in the ass, but besides that it's a nice phone and works nicely :)

On a side note, spotted a nice article on EliteFTS.com which popped up recently:

ABCs of Squatting, Part 1

Not really too much else to report. Was in the mood to write a whole lot more random stuff earlier, but I seem to have lost that urge. Going to watch The Hills Have Eyes now. Better be a good watch!

Thought for the Day:

"A hospital is no place to be sick"

Samuel Goldwyn

Peace

bEn

A few training videos

2009-05-02T00:20:00.003+01:00

I was training yesterday and decided to take a few videos of my squat seeing as I've had some worries about my depth recently. It feels like my squats are really deep when I'm doing them and it really doesn't feel like I'll get down much further at all. I think widening my stance has contributed to this and also tightness in my hip flexors. More so tightness in my hip flexors. Going to get them stretched out in the near future and hopefully this will correct things.

100kg:

120kg:

142.5kg, feels like my form is much improved:

Been supplementing with some rack pulls to see how it feels. Following the squats I gave 170kg plus two smallest 12" Iron Woody bands a pop, pretty much right from my sticking point:

I was pretty pooped after training legs and hitting my lower back and abs as well. Headed down to Centaur to lend a hand with moving some crap around the gym. The new log was sitting there and I just couldn't resist. lol. Bear in mind this was the first time I've tried a log. 100kg log:

Followed this up with 105kg log:

All in all a good day. Squats feeling much more solid and as I say, form improved I think. My lower back is mince meat today though. Trained chest and back this evening and I've managed to get a slight pull in the lateral head of my left triceps. I felt it during benching which was right at the start of my workout. I plugged away and finished the whole workout, so it mustn't be too bad. I'm going to bed now. Shattered.

Thought for the Day:

"Success is steady progress toward one's personal goals"

Jim Rohn

Peace

bEn

Bleh

2009-04-29T23:24:00.005+01:00

Well, not to much to report really. Back to uni this week. My sleep pattern is a mess. Dunno why, but I can't seem to get to sleep until like 3 am. Then I have to get up at 7.45 to get out to uni. I was supposed to get up at 6 to train a few times this week, but after three hours sleep that just isn't going to happen. Tomorrow I have to train before uni, seeing as I want to study in the afternoon and Paul has asked me to do him a favour down in the gym in the evening. If I don't train in the morning then I don't train at all. I have to prioritize studying over pretty much everything now. These exams will be tough enough and I want to pass them all first time. It's only the last few days that I've began to get some rhythm up with my studying and information is beginning to stick. Better stay that way!

New exercises in training are making things a bit more interesting. Hopefully the strength in my delts in particular will pick up. New deadlift routine is slightly more difficult than I had hoped, but I'm hoping it's just a matter of time before I adjust and things become smoother. Bit of a trough next week, so that will be nice. I was looking for a few of the articles I was reading about on squatting, but can't seem to come across them again. If I do spot some good stuff on anything I'll be sure to give it a mention here.

Gave my low GI presentation yesterday. I think it went pretty well. Didn't stumble through it too much! Just waiting on feedback now, then I'll brush up my dissertation and submit it. Will probably fire it up online for anyone who is interested sometime in the next few weeks I reckon.

I know this is a reeeeeally boring and rushed entry, but that's pretty much how my life is now. lol. Trying to live in books and absorb as much medical info as possible. It would be nice if something exciting that I could talk about happened in my life.

Thought for the Day:

"Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring"

Edward Gorey

Peace

bEn

Sore head

2009-04-21T23:51:00.004+01:00

Not sure where this entry is going to go really, just going to type away and see where it takes me. Saturday went well, though not everything to plan. I had wanted to just do openers and make the world qualifiers, but another dude turned up in my age and weight class, so I had to push on a bit. As follows:

Squat: 190, 200, 210

Bench: 120, 130, 135*

Dead: 210, 232.5 -

* = missed lift.

Surprised by my squat. My working sets are only 137.5kg at the moment, so to put up 210 without being anywhere near close to a peak is very reassuring. I aim to squat 500lb by the summer. Bust quite a few capillaries on the 210 squat. My eyebrows were a bit purple and my neck kinda speckled. I had a sore head most of the day and it didn't let up until yesterday. I thought I'd got rid of it, but the pain has come back today, which sucks.

My bench, poo, as usual. I had the 135 and knew it so I relaxed and the bar dropped a tad, failing me on the lift, though I continued to press and lock it out. Deadlift, easy peasy. 232.5 not as easy as it used to be, but again, working sets are much lower than this. I start a new beastly deadlift routine that I thought up tomorrow :) Because I am only shooting at about 60-70% at the moment I had to play tactics on Saturday. The first time I've had to do so in competition. It was good to nail that as well. Thanks to everyone involved at the competition, especially Peter Leitch who put in a hell of a lot of effort organizing it. I know how crap it is to be in that position.

As regards studying today I polished up the last few bits of my dissertation and started putting it into powerpoint slides for the presentation I have to do on it next week. That's about the height of my work today. Was in Centaur training this evening, which I enjoyed. Tomorrow is going to be some microbiology as I am seriously behind in that. Seriously behind meaning I haven't started! I also need to do some anatomy and finish off the presentation I started today. Sounds like tomorrow will be exciting :S

Thought for the Day:

"We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow."

James Taylor

Peace

bEn

Nationals tomorrow

2009-04-17T20:07:00.007+01:00

Well, nationals tomorrow. A little bit nervous, which is good. I was worrying that I wouldn't get any nerves and wouldn't enjoy it so much. I like to feel on edge a bit, that's part of the fun of competing! :) I haven't lifted since Monday and I haven't benched since last Sunday, which isn't ideal. I would have liked another bench day before this Saturday. I was down in Centaur all day Monday and Tuesday painting the place. After Tuesday I was wrecked and just couldn't be bothered training the next day. My hands are also a bit wrecked as well.

The gym was closed last Sunday with it being Easter and all and seeing as the weather was so good I took a notion to take a kettlebell out the back and swing it about for about 20 minutes. Bad idea. My hands aren't conditioned to it and I ended up tearing three holes in them. They have kept splitting open this week, so I'm not sure how they're going to hold up tomorrow. I also bust my shin deadlifting on Monday. I'm a walking wreck! lol

I saw this very nice video from Metal today. The goodmorning rack pull combo looks like it could wreak havok on your hams and lower back. The exact sort of thing I need. I can't wait to get back lifting some proper weight. Wish I had this sort of equipment available to me!

Back to Centaur...after spending all that time painting and cleaning it, it really looks a LOT better. It's now got a steel gray and red colour scheme. We've also got a few new pieces of equipment in, including a 15 foot gymnastics rope and two tyres. Kettlebells will also be in soon. I'm working on some other ideas at the moment as well. I want to relaunch the powerlifting club and make people have some sense of pride in it. People have taken it for granted and the last competition was a joke. I was embarrassed to be associated with such stupid behaviour. I want the club to be well run and everyone to train and lift as a team. I've been talking to Paul about it and hopefully we'll bring in a few changes in the next few weeks that will separate the wheat from the chaff :) Tuff love

Studying is going a bit better now. Over the last day or so I've done some immunology and I'm getting a better understanding of it. I just hate the huge number of abbreviations that are used. I was going along quite well with the immunology today and then I hit a wall and ended up looking at the page, but not actually learning anything from it. Gave it up after that. Sitting there getting frustrated was doing me no good.

Thought for the Day:

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

Leonardo da Vinci

Pax

bEn

Studying has gone to the dogs

2009-04-11T00:44:00.004+01:00

Haven't been up to too much this week. As usual when I get off for holidays from uni my sleep pattern has gone to shit. Was online to all hours last night reading random stuff and then got up late today. Training went really well today. Back and chest. Feeling very solid on the bench and my incline dumbell press is coming along. I worked up to 120kg to see how it felt prior to my working sets. Video:

After this I went back and did a load of reps with a lighter weight. On a bodybuilding routine at the moment and I'm getting great crossover to the strength side of things. This tends to happen with me whenever I'm on a routine with a lot of sets condensed into short periods of time. As regards my bench technique, I've made a whole lot of changes to it, although they may not be immediately visible to someone who's not used to the way I used to bench. I've also been trying to concentrate on speed on the bench. Slow down, slight pause and then exploding back up, trying to accelerate right to the lockout. I'll hopefully have a video of some incline dumbell pressing in the next few weeks.

Back down to Centaur tomorrow and I'll hopefully have a video of a reasonably heavy power jerk. I managed to get a gymnastics rope for the gym down there, it's a big thick hemp rope which is a great addition for training functional strength in the arms, back and open hand grip. It's something different and fun to train with.

Studied the renal system for a while today. Kept getting distracted by the internet though. Seriously, I have such an addiction. I keep saying to myself I should turn my computer off when I'm studying, but I need it whenever I need to look something up. Kind of stuck there. Tomorrow I hope to finish the renal system and move into the nervous system or gastrointestinal system. I've yet to do any anatomy, so I need to keep that in the back of my mind. The older stuff from first year seems a lot easier now that I have a better overall understanding of the systems and how they are related. At last things are starting to come together!

I may head to bed here. 0100. Not too late for me.

Thought for the Day:

"The Roman legions were formed in the first instance of citizen soldiers, who yet had been made to submit to a rigid discipline, and to feel that in that submission lay their strength."

Goldwin Smith

Pax

bEn

Virgin Media SUCKS

2009-04-07T01:30:00.006+01:00

Well, today I got up and trained. A bit of chest and back, nothing too exceptional. After training I came back home grabbed a bite to eat and sat down to do some work...but no, the internet wouldn't work. Again.

Seriously, Virgin Media has to be some of the poorest service ever. Last time I had problems with the internet I ended up on the phone to a call centre on the other side of the world for an hour. I decided today that I just wasn't going to phone them. Instead, I went home to North Belfast and used the good old reliable BT internet there. Our contract with Virgin is up soon, so I think it's a pretty sure bet that we will be looking to change to another provider instead of wasting our money on these wabs. I found this link which I enjoyed reading: http://www.cokeandcode.com/node/1006

I went to the great Asda today and as I was standing at the till I though how kind of bizarre some people may think my shopping basket is. It looked a little something like this:

1 x bag red peppers

2 x bag mixed salad

2 x trays turkey breasts and pieces

2 x trays chicken breasts

2 x blocks mature cheddar

2 x tubs coleslaw

1 x bottle olive oil

2 x dozen eggs

1 x bag porridge oats

6 x tins tuna

It makes me realise how much protein I throw down my throat in comparison to most other people :S

Thought for the Day:

"As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it."

Dick Cavett

Peace

bEn

Reverse Hypers

2009-04-06T15:24:00.003+01:00

As promised, here's my improvised reverse hypers:

Video description:

Thanks to Jamie Burke for the idea. I've started adding these into my training and I'm really feeling a lot of benefit. This video's just to demonstrate what I've been doing. I'm doing the movement on a hyper extension machine with 41 inch bands doubled around the support. I've got my hands around the foot supports of the machine. I've found that if you put a slight bend in the knee you feel the sciatic nerve stretch a little more.

I'll be blogging again later today.

Peace

bEn

Andy Bolton

2009-04-06T01:33:00.003+01:00

I totally forgot about a video I saw today. I couldn't be bothered putting it in the previous post because of having to sort out the alignment and all that balls. Anywaaaaaaaaaaaays. Andy Bolton pulls 457.5kg (1008.6lbs). Sick sick sick sick sick. What an absolute animal. Dunno what he weighed in at, but he looks bigger than before.

Peace

bEn

Look Alikes

2009-04-06T01:27:00.006+01:00

Another running theme...just for the craic

Today's specimens are Dirk Kuyt of Liverpool and Sloth from the Goonies.

Lazy as foooooook

2009-04-06T01:06:00.006+01:00

I dunno what it is about Sundays. I just feel so lazy or something during them. Last night I was on the internet reading powerlifting articles, also printed off some journal articles on back injuries for advance reading. I can barely remember the blog entry I made last night I was so tired. Anyways, seeing as I didn't get much sleep Friday night I decided to just lie in bed until I woke up...big mistake. I woke at 0900 to pee and then went back to sleep. Somehow I managed to lie in until 1330! Felt good though. Decided I'd go the whole haul and give myself a break from training today. Spent the day doing a few portfolio entries and cleaning the house.

My portfolio is something I have to do for medicine and it's also something which is a complete and utter waste of time. It consists of a document with spaces that need to be filled in with reflective entries each about 200-400 words long. These are on things like "learning experiences," patient interactions bla bla. I had to do one in first year as well. I have to say, I've had no benefit from doing it. It's quite simply a pain in the hole. It's too repetitive and to myself and everyone else who I've spoken to, it's just another hoop for us to jump through. I can understand why we are being made to do it, but its structure could be vastly improved. Last year on completion of the portfolio we were told whether we passed or failed and that was all the feedback we got. If I'm going to put time and effort into a document with potentially 34 x 400 word entries and people to tell me how important it is, I expect some sort of feedback on it. I know most people in my year are simply copying and pasting entries from last year into this year's portfolio. The whole thing is a joke.

I meant to say a while ago, I quit my job. It was becoming more hassle than it was worth. Since I've quit it's felt like there's been a load off my shoulders, though I have really noticed a distinct lack of cash :(

I'm definitely training tomorrow and I hope to have a video of the improvised reverse hypers I was talking about. I'm beginning to think about my next routine in terms of the split, reps, sets, exercises and progressions I want to have in it. I'll come up with a few ideas and have a sit down with Paul and we'll create another monster hopefully. lol.

Great result for United today...I was crapping my pants until we grabbed one in stoppage time. Macheda is officially a legend. He looks way older than 17 though. Must be the sunbeds

Thought for the Day:

"If you're going to do something wrong, do it right"

Paul Mc Ilroy

Peace

bEn

Back in Centaur

2009-04-05T00:38:00.006+01:00

Well, today was my first day back in Centaur. Just did some assistance work on the shoulders and triceps. It was good to be back down in the place. I plan on getting down there every Saturday morning from now on. After training I just sat around chatting with the guys and had a few cups of coffee. Spent ages talking about potential equipment for the gym. Paul and I came up with some sick ideas. Beginning to get excited about this now! :D

The last few days I've been spending a lot of time on www.elitefts.com. A great site for a company owned by Dave Tate, formerly of Westside Barbell. They have some seriously awesome equipment, although at a price. Not in our budget at the moment, but I can dream! lol. The equipment there is novel, but incredibly effective at developing functional strength, rehabbing injuries and generally just providing a twist on training.

Recently I've been improvising reverse hypers in the gym. Quite frankly, they are like sex for the lower back. I can't rate them highly enough. During the exercise you feel your sciatic nerves stretch and then when you stand up it feels like all your vertebra have just been pulled back into place and you get a massive pump in the lower back. It gives tremendous relief from any niggles down there from my short experience of it. I can only dream what it would be like to have a proper reverse hyper machine like the monster below!

Some benching is in order tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it :) Sorry the entries are so training orientated at the moment. I did nothing else but train and fart about today, which was my plan, so it's all good :) I'll probably make another entry tomorrow seeing as I have the time. I'll need to think of something to rant about. lol

Thought for the Day is a quote from Simon Cowell. Do you really believe it??? Personally I don't. I doubt he does that many press-ups daily, which leads me to a point...why do people lie about their stats?!

Thought for the Day:

"I do a couple of hundred press-ups a day, but I haven't been to a gym in years"

Simon Cowell

Peace

bEn

Not too much going on...

2009-04-04T00:59:00.006+01:00

Apologies for neglecting the blog for a few weeks. Nothing too special has been happening with me. Still injury-free which is a bonus. Sitting about 17 stone, which is just where I want to be.

Only real news I have doesn't relate directly to myself. Paul, my coach is now the owner of Centaur Gym in Belfast City Centre. I think it will be a great investment for him and I'm keen on helping as much as possible to get the gym back to its glory days. It's the oldest gym in the UK and greats like Arnold, Reg Park and Bill Pearl have all trained there.

The weights were built in Belfast shipyard, although they also have some new weights, adjustable olympic dumbells and at least one olympic bar. The guys are currently working on a new website for the gym and there will be some great advantages to being a member of the gym. I can't say too much now, but the amount of fantastic novel ideas floating around now is awesome. There are going to be some great new features in the gym and its community. It will definitely be unique.

Uni is going alright. Off for Easter as of today. I'm going to take it easy on the studying this weekend, maybe just do a few portfolio entries, then next week hit the books and get stuck into the material for my exit and systems exams. Dreading them. The exit involves all the physiology, anatomy, pharmacology etc from the last three semesters. It will be intense. That's it for now, 0115 and I have to be down in the gym for 0900.

Thought for the Day:

"The beginning is the most important part of the work"

Plato

Pax

bEn

St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T16:21:00.006Z

Happy St. Patrick's day and all that. I'm just sitting here reading papers for this dissertation again. Not too many more to go. Getting fed up with it to be honest. I think I'm going to head round to my friends' house for a party in a while. Not really in the mood for it though. Was in the Royal last night and got to fix a shoulder dislocation. Basically involved giving the guy a hypnotic, which he seemed pretty happy about and then pulling his arm and externally rotating the shoulder. It popped right back in and he didn't seem too bothered. I think after the morphine and benzodiazepine there wouldn't be too much that would bother him. lol. It was a good experience seeing as we were covering a lot about this in anatomy.

The shoulder tends to dislocate inferiorly and anteriorly due to the lack of muscle below the head of the humerus. I got a couple of x-rays from Gray's which show it pretty nicely:

Above is a normal left shoulder and below is a dislocation of the head of the humerus inferiorly. I really hope I never suffer from this injury due to training or otherwise. It tends to cause grown men to roll around and squeal a little. Also, when it's being put back in, from the videos I've seen and from last night the patient tends to be pretty out of it on medication, so it really must be ridiculously sore.

Training picking up a little. I put up a 180 squat for a double yesterday morning before uni and before I had my breakfast, so that's promising. Deadlifts are feeling comfortable and the lower back work that I'm putting in already feels like it's starting to pay off.

Thought for the day is a bit of a piss-take.

Thought for the Day:

"I can pull a bone out of my shoulder and dislocate it."

Kylie Bax

Peace

bEn

A lazy Sunday

2009-03-15T13:30:00.006Z

Just sitting here doing a dissertation. Hard work slogging through all these studies. It's on low glycaemic index foods and their potential for weight loss and health benefits. Interesting, but as I say, it's a nightmare pushing through all these papers and trying to create some sort of structure within my head. I've done about 800 words of a 4000 word dissertation, which I probably shouldn't have started yet seeing as I haven't read all the papers I have printed. It just gets really hard reading and highlighting and trying to bear everything in mind without putting anything concrete down on a word document. Another problem is that I read one journal article and then I see another that could be useful listed amongst the references, before I know it I've printed off another one and need to read it as well! :(

I've had a really good week of training, hopefully it continues. I was doing some tyre flipping yesterday and on Tuesday. The tyre is only 120kg, but it fairly gases you. Yesterday it felt much much lighter though, so I think I'm going to have to begin to look elsewhere for something heavier. My uncle has a farm and probably has a rake of tyres lying about, the only thing is getting one heavy enough and then finding somewhere to store and use it! Maybe someday I can flip a tyre like the one below (and I mean the bigger one!) :P

Width: 1.47 meters
Weight: about 5.1 tons

I was down in Centaur the other day to see Paul. Hadn't been in there in aaaages. It's still just the same, smell-wise though seems a bit damper! lol. Paul is doing really well as regards his work, which is great to see as he has put a hell of a lot of work into getting his qualifications etc. He is constantly reading outside of work as well. He's becoming a walking strength and conditioning dictionary. I'd like to get back training in Centaur again, so I'm going to see about working it into my routine somewhere.

Speaking of training in other gyms, I was at The Gym in Lisburn on Thursday. They have a great set-up there. Similar to Centaur in that you go, have a workout and then you can grab a cup of coffee or bite to eat afterwards. They have all sorts of bars and all in there. Most of them belong to Jamie Burke, who I have to say is a gentleman. He helped me out the other day with a few lower back exercises with the equipment they have. He was benching that day. Ran out of space on the bar. Sick. It's pretty inspiring and humbling to go down there and see the huge weights that are being lifted. I'm going to try and make it there every week now for some lower back work I can't do elsewhere. Really nice atmosphere in the gym as well, everyone looking out for each other. Below is a pic of Jamie at the GPC worlds last year. Animal.

Thought for the Day:

"No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration."

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Pax

bEn

Back to Training

2009-03-03T19:43:00.006Z

Well, as most people know, I've had back problems for about ten months now. Last week I went to see Brian Jackson, a manipulative therapist in Dunmurry. The treatment I received is pretty miraculous. For almost a year I had pain and weakness in my back every day. I spent about 5-10 minutes with Brian, stood up and my back actually felt normal again. This has meant I've been able to get back to some sort of training schedule and more importantly I can lift without pain and I feel confident in my back.

The nationals are in Belfast on the 18-19th April. I want to qualify for the worlds. In order to do this I need to total 510. Shouldn't be a problem, as long as my back holds out and barring a freak injury I think I can manage it. I'm thinking that I would like to go no further than 200 on the deadlift and make up the rest of the weight elsewhere. A 190 squat and a 110 bench or something. My bench is horrendous at the moment, so I'm purposely undershooting with it. A 190 squat should be safe enough I think. After this I won't compete again until April, when the worlds come round. It looks as though they will be in England, which is handy and should save me some money!

I passed my exams in January, though I didn't do nearly as well as I had hoped and I had a nightmare OSCE. I knew my marks in it would be crap. Just a bad day. I've been trying to be a bit more clinical in my approach to learning medicine. I've grown to hate wrote learning and so I've been trying to apply my knowledge as much to clinical practice as possible. It means I may not do quite as well in exams, but I know for sure I'll be a better doctor. A bit of a paradox I know, but I've come to realise that in medicine exams mean nothing. Just pass them. Being a doctor is something totally different.

On that point, I've been doing some take ins in the Royal at night. I was in last night at about 2230 and ended up in theatre watching a really interesting operation. I was told by the registrar that I'd never see anything like that again. The patient was an old lady who had been admitted to theatre to investigate abdominal pain etc. When the surgeons got in they came across a cancer of the colon. The cancer had pulled the ileum inside the colon, perforated the bowel and managed to move outside the colon. Really unusual. Most of the colon was resected along with some of the ileum. I can't remember the exact name of the condition. After that we were down in A&E for some admissions. A few cases of appendicitis and inguinal hernias. All in all a busy night, but I learned a lot which made it all worthwhile. I got in at about 0430.

Thought for the Day:

"Health is the core of human development."

Gro H. Brundtland

Peace

bEn

Another Set of Exams Over!

2009-01-21T17:15:00.007Z

Phew, well, my exams are over for another few months. Had my OSCE today. It was intense. I was pushed time-wise at quite a few stations and as a result I did mess a few up, which is pretty shit :( Ah well, can't win them all!

I didn't have the best preparation last night either. I was driving round Chlorine Gardens last night and as I was turning right the back of the car skidded out and I totally lost control, slid into the curb and veered the opposite direction a bit. Fuck, it was an awful feeling to have no control of a big chunk of metal on wheels. Thankfully no-one was hurt and no damage was caused to anything but the wheel of my car. I wasn't even driving fast, there was no way I could have been anyway, it's a short distance between turns on that street. After the accident the car drove really weird, the steering wheel sort of shaking from side to side. I rang my dad and he came over to have a look. We changed the tire and the car drove fine. I hadn't done any damage to the axle or anything like that. Just seemed as though the rim of the wheel had been distorted.

I went to the mechanic today. When he saw the wheel he was surprised at the lack of damage and said I couldn't have been going too fast. Said he had seen much much worse and the wheel should be fine. I told him it wouldn't drive right. He tested the balance and it was fucked :S I'll need to get a new wheel. Tire was fine though. At the end of the day I'm just glad there were no injuries.

Right now I feel exhausted, both mentally and physically. So I think I'll give the gym a miss today. Training is going awesome though. I have dropped a few pounds, but my legs feel way bigger and my chest as well. Mainly thanks to the great routine I'm on! Thanks Paul! Speaking of which, Paul and Gerard Mc Manus (BFL UK winner) will be interviewed on CityBeat this evening. Not sure if it is going out live or if it will be recorded and broadcast later. My guess is broadcast later, as it's being recorded in Gerard's boxing gym, Ghleann ABC.

I figured my thought for the day, could come from the new American President. Keeping it topical. On a side note, he is in great nick for a politician. Most of them are fat and can barely walk the length of themselves!

I'll also leave you with a video showing how stupid Sarah Palin really is...

Thought for the Day:

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

Barack Obama

Peace

bEn

UFC was awesome

2009-01-18T17:20:00.004Z

Well, I went to UFC 93 yesterday in Dublin and it didn't disappoint. I think I'll probably end up following this sport. I've already decided I have to see the fight between BJ Penn and GSP on the 31st of January. On the whole I enjoyed the first five fights more than the next five. I acknowledge that's because the more experienced fighters in the latter fights aren't going to be as inexperienced and risk taking as many hits etc. My favourite fight was between Shogun Rua and Mark Coleman, purely because I'd heard about the history behind this fight and in the interviews prior to it Coleman was trash talking. This made me side with Rua and I loved that Coleman got humbled in the third round. He obviously wasn't happy with the decision, but imo he was done when the ref stopped the fight. Found this video with his reaction after the fight:

I think he is a little delusional in this video :S When the ref stopped the fight he was pretty much out on his feet. If the fight had continued for him to get beaten around the head for another 10-15 seconds he probably wouldn't be physically able to give his reaction on the fight.

All in all, it was great day. Thanks to Paul for offering me the ticket and Michael for driving down.

Today I spent some time studying some clinical skills. It's hard to do this, as they are things you really need to practice by acting them out. Laura is coming round tomorrow, so hopefully I can practice some cranial nerve examination then :) For today, I've just been reading through a few things and watching some videos online. Once I get an idea of the structure of the examinations and history taking I should be flying.

Yet again, my sleep pattern is bizarre. I couldn't sleep until 6am on Saturday morning and then I didn't get to sleep until about 5am this morning. Really frustrating, but there's not much more I can do than get up after 5/6 hours sleep and hope that I'm tired by the end of the day. I don't want to have to resort to sleeping tablets :S

I have been meaning to write an article on delayed onset muscle soreness for a while now. I started it like two months ago, but uni got pretty hectic and I had to put it on hold for a while. I'm going to do a little research over the next few days and hopefully I'll have it close to finished before I get back to uni for the second semester.

Well, there's not too much else for me to say. Today was distinctly average and monotonous.

Thought for the Day:

"I definitely feel like my blog is going edgy to broad and boring."

Joichi Ito

Pax

bEn

Getting my motivation back

2009-01-16T23:30:00.000Z

At the moment I'm trying to do a bit of studying for exams. I had two this week and I found them both pretty difficult. I'm glad to see the back of them to be honest. My next exam is my OSCE next Wednesday, which leaves me with a few days to get a lot of practice done and get slick at it.

Just in from work, it was busy enough, but good craic joking about a bit and laughing at some of the people who were coming in blocked just before we closed. I'm back into a pretty good routine now as regards studying and training. I was having a hard time getting my sleep pattern right for a while there, but I think I've almost got it sorted. I was up until 6am this morning though. Screwing around on the net and then even when I went to bed it did take a while for me to get over to sleep.

I was having a hard time getting the motivation up to push myself again in the gym. Like anything, once you stop, it's hard to get going. I've been back solidly at the training just over a week now. Squats are going great and my back is actually beginning to feel normal again. There is still definite weakness in the right side, but I'm doing my best to overcome this. I adjusted my squat stance as I was getting hip flexor pain from a wider stance. I was trying a wider stance as I had heard that on the whole, hamstrings etc will be stronger than quads. Unfortunately it didn't suit me. I'm definitely designed for a more quad dominant squatting style, so I'll just play to my strengths. I have purposely been overtraining my squat seeing as I have a short time period in which to squat 180kg again. It's really been working. I had lost about an inch off my legs the last few weeks, within a week and a half of this pretty intense squat routine I've gained half an inch back. I would be happy if I could get back to 28 inch legs and then push it a bit more on this routine. My bench is weaker than usual right now, but I'm not too bothered. I'm doing a bodybuilding workout on it to help me get a bit of muscle back. It's fun.

Although I am still setting myself targets in the gym, I'm trying to be a bit more measured in my approach. Instead of stressing myself out about and during training I'm trying to bear in mind that I do it for enjoyment and that training isn't a chore. Hopefully this will stop me getting stale.

I got a call from Paul today while I was in work. Turns out I'll be heading down to Dublin to go watch the UFC tomorrow. How awesome is that?! :D Can't wait. It will be the first time I've been to it and I've heard it's incredible. It will be a bit of a change of scene for me anyways. I'm not sure if I posted Paul's new website up here, but check it out anyways:

www.paulmcilroy.com/

...And yes, I'm on the cover page! :P

Hopefully it won't be too long before I blog again. Randomly, I really want to deadlift my car in the next few months. It would be awesome to get a photo of that! :D

Thought for the Day:

"My own image of my work is that I no sooner settle into something than a break occurs. These breaks are always painful and depressing but despite them I see that there's a consistency that holds out, but is hard to define."

Lee Krasner

Paz

bEn

Hall of Legends

2009-01-16T18:34:00.001Z

"Yes, forget your weakness, whatever that weakness may be. It is egotism, it is selfishness after all, for it is a dwelling on self. Forget your weakness; and remember your strength."

Joseph B. Lightfoot

Paul Anderson. There isn't too much I can say about this guy, as I'll never be able to give him the credit he is due. An absolute strength legend. Arguably the strongest man that ever lived. I found a great video on youtube about him that helps give an idea of what an incredible human being he was...

Peace

bEn

01/01/09

2009-01-16T18:19:00.001Z

I wrote this entry when I was in Donegal over the new year. I don't have internet access up there, so I jotted this down and now I'm just typing it into the computer...

Right now I'm up in Donegal. It's nice to have a change of scene and driving up here was a bit of experience. (Got my licence about 2-3 months ago, glad to have it over and done with!) I'm used to driving in the city, so the country roads on the way up here were a bit of a change.

Sorry I've been quiet on the blog front recently, but I've been trying to focus a bit more on my degree this year. From what I've been told the exams I have coming up in the next few weeks are the most failed in the whole medical school, so I've been trying to study. I emphasise trying because I haven't quite managed one good day of revision yet :S I was hoping today would be constructive, but I didn't manage to sleep until 0515 this morning. Sleep pattern is pretty messed up. Ah well.

Training had gone to shit before, but now it's even worse. I was getting back into it about a month ago, cutting weight, building a bit of muscle back etc, but then I got hit with that infection thing that's going round. Couple that with a few exams and deadlines in the last two weeks of the semester and my life was a bit of a living hell! lol. It can always be worse, I know! Then Christmas came along and I ate like fook...end result being a fat unfit and weak Ben. lol. I'm setting myself a bit of a target for the next six weeks. I have the national single lifts on Valentine's Day this year and I want to make the World and European qualifiers in the deadlift and squat. I am currently squatting, benching and deadlifting a total of 0kg. lol. Muscle memory should help me, but this should still be a bit of a challenge, coupled with nursing my back to good health this should be interesting. It will also be during exam time too, so add in some major stress! lol

Basically I need a 180kg squat and 200kg deadlift by Valentine's Day. Doable. Looking forward to getting back into the gym when I return from my slovenly stay in Donegal.

Thought for the Day:

"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door."

Albert Camus

Peace

bEn

23/12/08

2008-12-23T18:14:00.000Z

Well, how long has it been since I've blogged... Been totally carried away with other things the last few months. Uni has kind of taken over my life. Things are a lot more busy this semester.

Training has gone to shit. I had taken a break because of my back and I'd began getting back into it, rehabbing (spelling?) my back and cutting some weight. I was back into it a few weeks then I got hit with that shitty cold that everyone seems to be getting. Had to take two weeks off and here I am. Back to square -1. It's seriously depressing :( I feel soft, weak and pretty useless. It's going to take a huge effort to get back into shape again. I've just been unlucky with sickness and injury the last few weeks-months. In a way it's a blessing in disguise and has forced me to focus more on uni and trying to keep on top of the workload. I want to get back in the gym ASAP, but with Christmas and my working hours it looks like I'll have to wait a few days. I think I'll train early in the morning and then spend the rest of the day studying.

I've been doing a bit of microanatomy today. Just finished neurons and supporting cells. Covered a bit of brain anatomy too. I'll hopefully have all the microanatomy lectures for this semester covered by about 2100.

Right now it really feels like things have ran away from me a bit, so I'll have to get the finger out and get back on top of things. It will take a lot of discipline and motivation, which is something I'm really lacking these days, but it has to be done.

Just typing this during a brief study break, so I'll stop now and finish this entry in a few hours time. Hopefully I'll be a bit happier then because I'll have achieved what I hoped for the day. Back to the books...

I never did finish this entry! lol. I'm posting it now retrospectively.

Peace

bEn

Nothing in particular

2008-09-17T11:28:00.000+01:00

I haven't got anything in particular to say in this entry, just going to type and see where it takes me. No doubt training etc will be a topic...

I had a really productive day in the gym yesterday. I moved the squats up a good bit and they felt just grand, so I think now that this will be the final run-in to the worlds. I am feeling a lot more confident with my back and I even did a little cardio after a gruelling leg workout yesterday. Thanks to Damien for the kettlebells! I got a little bored doing the same old stuff with them, so I decided to try and throw one up in the air and sort of spin it and catch it again. It was only a 16kg I was playing about with like, but I didn't catch it and it bounced off the wooden decking out the back of my house and smacked me in the shin. Fuckkk it hurt. lol. Serves me right for being a smart ass. If I develop an impressive bruise I will upload a picture of it.

I have been feeling a lot more confident with my back recently, though I think maybe I got a little carried away yesterday, as it's hurting a bit today. Though, it's nothing to worry too much about for now.

I might take today off training, just to give my back a bit of a rest, but I'll see in a few hours after my driving lesson. I might yet take a fancy to going down for a quick workout.

My diet has been shite the last few days. I've been on the move a lot and just grabbing food when and where I can. I kept things pretty clean yesterday. Finished my workout after six, so was going to go easy on the carbs etc, but I got such a fucking munchie head and had to make two big chicken breast sandwiches with salad, cheese and coleslaw. Fucking worth it anyway! :D

United playing tonight and quite frankly I'm not to confident about them. I didn't see the game on Saturday, but I heard they were utter poo and deserved the loss :( It's a really bad start to the season, but hopefully they can pick it up tonight. I was reading today that that ballbag John Terry got his red card rescinded. Bullshit. He deserved it, no doubt about it. Means he'll be about against United now :( Pure shit.

Thought for the Day:

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."

Theodore Roosevelt

Peace

bEn

Rack Pull

2008-09-15T00:41:00.000+01:00

Managed to get a hold of some freeware to convert my video from Quicktime to wmv. Here it is:

No belt, just chalk. Bar is smooth as hell and tore my hands up :(

Peace

bEn

Glad to see the back of it

2008-09-14T23:01:00.000+01:00

Well, I managed to organise the IDFPA national bench press championships without too many glitches along the way. I'm so glad that the whole thing is over and everyone seemed happy enough with it. I've had a headache for four days now and it doesn't show any sign of letting up. Right now I just want to chill out and try and get my head back into training, as my bench and squat are utter poo at the moment.

Everyone from our club did well in the competition yesterday and I've updated the news section, results section and club records page on the website:

Bench Press Champs Report

Results

Club Records

After this event I'm really pleased to be able to say that powerlifting is really taking off in Northern Ireland. There were plenty of young guys there yesterday and they were putting up some pretty crazy weights considering their age and weight. Long may it continue. Hopefully someone from the sports council sees that we are actually a very strong country in this sport and may even consider putting some money into it....ok, that's probably unrealistic, seeing as they make every excuse not to. :(

My back injury is coming along a lot better now. I had physio on it last week and it seems to have helped a bit. It still hurts if I'm sitting for a prolonged period of time, but I'm working on keeping it mobile and stretching it out every so often. It can't be too bad considering I rackpulled 320 the other day. I have it on video, but it's in quicktime format. I was looking for some freeware to convert it to wmv, but I can't find any. I'll have another look tonight and see how I get on. 320 felt A LOT heavier than 300 and tore the crap out of my hands. lol. It was sore as hell. Anywho.

I start back to uni two weeks tomorrow, so I'm thinking of doing a bit of reading this week. I've been planning to do this for a while though, so whether it happens is a totally different matter. lol. I just don't want to go back to uni and not have a clue what is being said to me. :S

I watched a really cool powerlifting documentary today. It's about Ryan Kennelly. He's a fooking monster on the bench. It streams for free here. He really is fucking mental. Bleeds from the nose and eyes at the Arnold Classic. Now that's hardcore. I needed to watch something like that to make me want to go bench, cos right now I hate it!

Thought for the Day:

"Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil."

Aristotle

Pax

bEn

My patience is being tested...

2008-09-03T18:52:00.000+01:00

I've been having a shitty last few days, for many reasons. Today really just topped it off. It was my first day back in the gym since I last hurt my back. It went so badly. Everything I did just felt stale and I couldn't find my groove on anything. It was unbelievably frustrating. I'm desparately hoping that tomorrow isn't as bad. I think this could be one of those make or break times. If I continue through this bad patch I think it will do me the world of good. The key is not to lose my patience and crack up at everything. It's hard to take a step back and take a deep breath when it seems everything is conspiring against you, but it's what needs done.

The bench champs are stressing me out big style, but I think everything should just about come together.

I don't have a whole lot to say right now. I'm kind of at a loss for words. I don't want to get into everything that is annoying me, because I'll just get worked up about it and burst a fecking blood vessel in my eye. lol. I'm just going to do my best to quietly deal with it.

That will have to do for this entry. It's served its purpose...to let everyone know I'm still alive and talking shite to myself on the internet! lol.

Thought for the Day:

"Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown."

Ross Perot

Peace

bEn

Trundling along

2008-08-25T18:14:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been busy enough the last few days. Not working in the offies, but working on other things. I went down to the first day of the UK's Strongest Man competition and got soaked while watching it. A guy who recently left the IDFPA was competing in it. He won the deadlift event with a 330kg lift. It was easy for him too! I didn't get a chance to get down to the rest of the days, but I hope he was successful. It's always good to see someone you at least vaguely recognise do well!

I've been working on an online shop for the powerlifting/strength club. We only get a couple of quid for each product, (all designed by yours truly!) but it is a means of making some money to fund our competitions and training equipment. I think some of the stuff looks pretty well, so feel free to buy some of it! :) We could really do with some support.

Not too much else to report, working everyday for the next three days and then heading to Donegal for the weekend. Haven't been up there in ages, so I'm looking forward to going, if anything for a change of scene.

Thought for the Day:

"I really don't think anything I do is a mistake. It could be if I didn't learn from it."

Fiona Apple

Peace

bEn

Random Post

2008-08-20T00:56:00.000+01:00

I figured I'd write a bit here while I'm sitting at the computer doing some gripwork. I had planned on being in bed by now, but I forgot I needed to train my crushing grip as I've neglected it for a few days....so here I am. lol.

Squatting tomorrow. Pretty much both dreading and looking forward to it (I'm a sick bastard!). I know it's going to be a tough one and all my leg workouts will be here on in until November. No point trying to start new weights cycles this close. I wouldn't get enough out of them and I don't like recycling, so continuing as I am seems the only option. I was happy with my workout today. A new pb on the incline dumbell press. I had previously only gone as far as 37.5kg with these and dropped the exercise as I was starting a new program, but now I'm up to 45kg working sets with ease, despite my triceps being frrrriied by dips and benching beforehand. My benching is something I really got to work on. I would love if I managed 350lb this year, but that's a bit pie in the sky right now. I'm going to have a chat with Paul about peaking my bench and squat for November. We have already thoroughly talked (with glee!) about peaking my deadlift.

This weekend UK's Strongest Man is on in Belfast. I'm going to try and make it to every day. It's run by big Glenn Ross and to be honest, my money's on him to win it. It's laid out as follows:

Venue: Belfast
23rd Aug Day 1 City Hall
24th Aug Day 2 Odyssey
25th Aug Day 3 Custom House Square

The events are:

Events Day 1- City Hall
1. Viking Press – 1 x competitor 130kg
2. Bricklift – 1 x competitor max
3. Sweety Snatcher – 2 x competitors (wrestling test)
4. Wheelbarrow Medlay 2 x competitors

Day 2 – Odyssey
5. Human Link (grip) 1 x competitor max
6. Curdler – 2 x competitor reps
7. Thors Hammer – 1 x competitor max
8. Truck Push – 2 x competitor timed

Day 3 – Final Custom House Square
9. Car lift – 2 x competitors reps
10. Caveman Lift – 1 x competitor max
11. Human Lift - 1 x competitor max
12. Stones (points) 130kg, 145kg, 160kg
13. Rubber man (flip, carry, drag) 1 x competitor

There are some real old-school style strongman lifts, such as the human lift. There are also a few there that I'm not exactly sure about, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the events. Should be a great show, I think it will be on Sky at some stage as well. I think I have a good shout at competing in this event in a few years time. I say competing, not placing or winning!!

The NIWLA bench press championships are also this weekend, so it's a busy one as far a strength sports go.

Thought for the Day:

Live in the future. Now is the past.

Pax

bEn

A rainy day

2008-08-17T01:27:00.000+01:00

I have been meaning to write in this for days now, just haven't got the finger out and done it. I've been working a lot recently and not sleeping enough, so I'm pretty wrecked right about now. Trained four days this week so far and I'm hoping to make it a very productive five tomorrow. Weights are getting heavy and training 6/7 days weekly is becoming much harder to achieve as my nervous system is taking a hit. I have worked out why I fucked my back up. One of the deadlift platforms in Queen's is seriously uneven and I can see now that it definitely had a part to play in pulling my back to one side when I was lifting. I'm going to write a seriously pissed off comment card. If they can't provide an even surface to lift off then the gym is a fucking joke. It's also a health and safety issue blah blah. I will send them a nice rant anyway.

Moving on....holy shit, what was that rain like today? Fucking apocalypse. lol. Everywhere was flooding. I wonder how much shite came up out of the sewers :S Headed into town today before the rain got too bad and met Paul, went for something to eat and then we had the great idea of eating a litre of ice cream each. It was great for the first few spoonfuls, then it just became a mind game of epic endurance. lol. We both did ourselves proud and finished it, though I suffered from brain freeze a few times.

Training is moving along quite well at the moment. My squats are getting hard as hell though and I'm getting pretty bad DOMS for a few days after. My legs are definitely growing though. I measured the top of my thigh last night and it came in at 29inches cold! I could hardly believe it. Mid-thigh I'm about 27.5 inches. When I sit down on my honkers it feels like my quads are pulling my damn kneecaps every-which-way. I have ordered some extra baggy jeans with a 36inch waist so as they fit my legs, it's ridiculous, but pretty sweeeet all the same :D Not sure what I weigh at the moment, though I'd guess about 240lbs. I've cleaned up my diet this last week, apart from today, where I had a bit of a day off. Keeps me sane!

Thought for the Day:

"Into each life some rain must fall."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Peace

bEn

Hall of Legends

2008-08-04T02:23:00.001+01:00

Eugene Sandow, 02/04/1867- 14/10/1925. This was a guy with a physique light years ahead of his time. I don't know a huge amount about him, but I do know that he was probably the first true bodybuilder ever. To this day he has a legacy in that the Mr. Olympia trophy is modelled after him, has his signature inscribed on the front and most people associated with the bodybuilding industry now refer to the trophy as "The Sandow".

He brought the concept of strongman to the masses, mastering old-style lifts like the bent press and also squatted people instead of weights. He is actually quite similar to Arnold in that he appeared in motion pictures etc in his day.

I couldn't find a quote from the man himself, but I think the one below is appropriate enough.

"It is a natural gift I was born with but it's something I've had to nurture in training."

Michael East

Good News

2008-08-04T01:57:00.000+01:00

Good news....my back is coming along a bundle! It's been three days of me eating everything, icing, resting and medicating and it's getting there. There's still a very distinct pain there and limited movement but I'm hoping to get back into the gym in the next few days. Maybe just to bench a little or something. I really want to be back deadlifting by Friday, even if it's only in the region of 180kg or so. That's a goal for me anyway. The fact I'm talking about deadlifting again already makes it sound like the inury I had was nothing. I guess relatively speaking it was, I mean it's not like losing a limb. It was sore though and has definitely weakened me. I'm not sure when I'll be able to put in a full leg workout without risking relapse. That's just the nature of the sport I've chosen I guess.

I also have some good news on my crushing grip. I just closed the 2.5 for the easiest rep yet....though I also tried the 3 and it was as hard as ever. lol. Shit.

The last few days have been spent on the sofa, farting about on the net and watching DVDs. My eyes must be turning square by now! Anyways, during this time I decided to work about on a logo for Centaur Strength, our Powerlifting/All-Round Strength Club. I finished up with this (which I may clean up a bit when I get round to it!) :

I visit the LA Muscle forums every day and got talking to Ross Edgley, one of LA Muscle's main sponsored athletes. He posts there regularly and seems like a great guy, really helpful and posts some very useful info. Anyway, he caught a look of my progress video and blog etc (not that I linked it over there. lol ) and has asked if I'd like to detail my prep for the worlds in a topic there. I was chuffed he asked me and I'm hoping it comes about. I'll post a link here if it goes through.

Thought for the Day:

"One must not forget that recovery is brought about not by the physician, but by the sick man himself. He heals himself, by his own power, exactly as he walks by means of his own power, or eats, or thinks, breathes or sleeps."

Georg Groddeck

Pax

bEn

Injuries

2008-08-02T00:56:00.000+01:00

Well, the last thing I wanted to happen happened. I injured my lower back again. I'm gutted, at the time I thought, well, that's me done for the worlds. I panicked and immediately thought the worst. Halfway up a rep on the deadlift and I feel a distinct give in my lower back and had to drop the bar. Worst thing was my back was feeling strong, though a little tight and I had the groove on the deadlift just great. The reps felt smooth as hell.

Now with a little hindsight I can tell this is just what happens. Life throws these things at you. For me, a back injury is minor. I have overcome much worse. I know if I want these world championships I will need to show I want them. I'm not superstitious, but many people would say I tempted fate. I said just a few days ago that if I hurt my back I would hit the drink again. Well, I hurt my back and I haven't hit the drink. lol.

This blog entry is really just a summary of my day recovering. I got up after a good sleep and had a large shake (72g protein) with added glutamine, a few bananas and apples, 800mg ibuprofen and 2xLA Muscle IP4. A few hours later I had another shake (48g protein) with added glutamine and 2 pieces toast with peanut butter. Another few hours later a half packet of Hob-Nobs. lol. Then dinner, which was 2x chicken breasts, 4 slices bread, coleslaw and salad, along with another large shake (72g+ of protein) and 2xLA Muscle IP4. Laura got me a few things in the Centra which included grapefruit juice. The grapefruit juice to help absorption of ibuprofen. Throughout the day I was sitting with my head propped up, feet elevated and icing my lower back on and off. I just finished today with another shake (48g+ protein), 2xLA Muscle IP4 and some ibuprofen with grapefruit juice. I'm not sure the grapefruit juice enhances the effects of ibuprofen, but I may as well drink it. lol.

My back is definitely recovering and I'll have a better idea of just how well tomorrow. I really rate the LA Muscle IP4 stuff. Since I've been taking it I've noticed the tendinitis in my wrist, which I've had for almost 4 months now has gone away within 6 days of taking the IP4. I am seriously impressed with this product.

I was really glad Laura came round today, sitting watching daytime TV on your own is shit. lol.

Tomorrow is going to be much the same, though I know it's not a great regime for my liver and kidneys. If I can do this for a few days I'm hoping to speed my recovery. I think I'll read a book instead of watching shit on tv, along with upping my carbs.

Thought for the Day:

"The test of character is having the ability to meet challenges"

Walter Annenberg

Peace

bEn

Quick Post

2008-07-27T22:20:00.001+01:00

This is just a quick post I've decided to make while I have a little time and motivation. lol. Feeling really tired these days. I think it's because I'm working so much and fitting in training along with that just wrecks me. My lower back has a slight pull at the moment, so I'm taking a few days off any exercises that involve my lower back. Working so much probably contributed to that. I'm working another 8 hours tomorrow unfortunately. I'm going to try and work a little less in September, get my head showered etc.

LA Muscle have me up on their website now, which is good, though there are no recent pictures there. I'm probably going to take a few this week, though they will be nothing special as I'm not lean at all. lol.

LA Muscle Profile
LA Muscle Article

Apart from the slight hold up with my back training is going very well. Today it felt like my triceps were hanging off me. lol. Which is sweeet.

Thought for the Day:

"We know what we are, but not what we may be"

William Shakespeare

Peace

bEn

Training Update 14/07/08

2008-07-15T14:52:00.000+01:00

Despite being awake until the early hours of the morning on Monday I had a great workout. I've had to change the way I set up the bands on the squat. Originally, in a previous video I uploaded I had the bands on the inside of the weights on the bar. This provided the resistance and everything, the only problem was that the bands sometimes got caught between the bar and the rack, getting nipped between the pieces of metal and so becoming frayed. I have ordered new bands, which should arrive soon. I don't like squatting with frayed bands, last thing I want is one side snapping, then I'm up shit creek. From now on I'm putting the bands to the outside of the weights. This now means that the bands are giving me resistance throughout my whole squat and avoiding them being damaged. It makes the squat a lot more difficult than the other band set-up, which I only realised when I took a step back and looked at the arrangement after finding my squats had got a lot harder all of a sudden.

I have found that muscle snatches are coming very natural to me, although I'm not supposed to be doing them. They are fun and I'm keeping them very light and doing them whenever I take a notion. Just for a laugh really. Jesse Marunde style! Legend. RIP.

I was also screwing about with some box jumps and I'm finding I'm retaining a reasonable amount of dynamic strength, even at 238lb bodyweight.

I got a bit of a rush of blood to the head yesterday as well and decided to slap on a whole load extra weight on the rack pulls, aiming to have a pop at 300kg. It went up just fine. I've found this really reassuring. I think I am more than on course for my target at the worlds. Now I just need to improve my fucking bench! lol. I am hoping I get some man-strength to help me along with that in the next few years! :D

So all in all, I had a great day in the gym yesterday. Things are running along nicely and my lower back feels like two steel cables. On an aside, I have noticed I have something that looks like a rash on my lower back. It gets itchy, but there's no rash. I'm thinking that maybe my lower back is bleeding a bit beneath the skin or something. No pain or anything, so I'm not too bothered about it, but I might just keep an eye on it in case. I'll probably try some hydrocortisone cream on it anyways and if there's no improvement I can be pretty sure it's not a skin condition anyway.

The thought for the day, isn't quite applicable to me, but it I think it works for other things in life. Working towards a goal usually isn't the fun part. Achieving what you wanted to usually is though.

Thought for the Day:

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' "

Muhammad Ali

Pax

bEn

Addiction

2008-07-14T03:31:00.000+01:00

An anonymous comment on my last blog entry has inspired me to write a little about addiction/destructive indulgence and how to overcome it.

I stress these are methods I use and are just for interest and don't constitute medical advice in any way.

1) When I really want a drink I have exactly the a typical dialogue in my head. Pretty much two voices. They weigh up the pros and cons. I find it helpful to convince myself that the pros of not indulging outweigh the cons of doing so (even if you truly don't believe that!) It's hard to explain, it's sort of a case of lying to yourself if you really need to.

2) At times, when you are really tempted, distract yourself or surround yourself with people with whom you can't engage with your addiction. For example, I mentioned staying out at a house party and not going home until the offies was closed. Previously, when I had a problem with self-harming, which was also incredibly addictive (weird I know!) I simply sat in a room with someone else. I would assume that most people engage with their addiction in a private manner, by being around others you won't do this.

3) Think of what others will think of you if you fail. This is a very strong motivator for me. So many people said I couldn't do it. It would sicken me if I ever succumbed to it again.

4) Tell loads of people you are stopping. This will help you in utilising number 3.

5) Never give up giving up.

6) If you stumble along the way, get up and forget about it. Though, this does not diminish how serious failure is.

7) Find an alternative, more constructive addiction. For me, the gym.

8) Think of the repercussions of failing to abstain.

9) Think of those who have spent time helping you overcome an addiction. How disappointed would they be? Similar to 8.

10) Think of the times when your addiction or result of your addiction harmed others. To be honest this makes me want to shrivel up and die. When I think of the things I have done when I have been pissed I hate the person I was.

11) Reward yourself after going through a tough period. eg. Buy a dvd or book and enjoy it. Sounds dumb, but finding satisfaction in simpler things in life helps.

12) Come to accept that nothing will ever replace the feeling of indulging in your addiction. I know I will never experience anything as good as the euphoric feeling of being utterly blocked. lol. So what? I have to deal with it. Then come to accept you won't ever experience that feeling again.

13) When you have succeeded in abstaining for a long time, think of the time and hard work you will have wasted if you give in.

14) Giving in means stopping again. Stopping again means withdrawal. Put mildly, withdrawal sucks. lol.

If this list is of any help to any one that would be awesome.

On a side note, I am hoping to upload a training video or two tomorrow. It's now 0341 and I'm wrecked, but hopefully I have a good day in the gym. Will be blogging again soon.

Thought for the Day:

"I admire anyone who rids himself of an addiction."

Gene Tierney

Peace

bEn

So is Life

2008-07-05T23:21:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd blog again today as I'm in the mood. lol. This entry doesn't really have any real purpose, just going to type a little about whatever comes into my head.

Training is running along smoother than it has in a while. My back is feeling strong, now I just need my wrist to heal. It's only been 3 1/2 months! I'm hoping to get over to Shankill Barbell Club next week to try my hand at some of the strongman equipment they have over there. I really need to get some experience with the stones, the neutral grip log and maybe an axle in preparation for the competition I have entered. Some tyre flipping would also be nice for technique and a little cardiovascular fitness. Finding somewhere where I can do this is a totally different matter though.

I began this blog entry a couple of hours ago and I got distracted with something else then headed out to a couple of parties. Was feeling stressed as hell and I'll admit that tonight was one of the worst nights I've had in a while in terms of wanting to drink. It was really tough. I just kept myself distracted until 11 when the offies was closed and then headed home. I hate to admit it, but more and more I get the feeling it's simply a matter of time before I crack and get absolutely rotten drunk. Most people reading this will probably think, so what, but the thing is if I start, I'm not sure when I'll stop again.

It was good to see a few old friends at one of the house parties I was at. On the other hand, it wasn't so good to see one person in particular. He was someone from my old class in school and would have been in my class about the time I was pretty ill. He was blind drunk and when he saw me he proceeded to rant loudly in front of people how I was a "psycho" last time he saw me and mockingly saying "Ah, life is shite!" whilst making a few embarrassing movements with his hands which I won't go into. My first reaction was embarrassment, then immediately after that I wanted to cleave his head from his shoulders. To be fair to him, I think he recognised this and whether out of fear or respect he put his arm round me and said he was only joking. Still, touched a nerve. Not long after he turns to me and asks if I have any pills, because me and my "bodybuilder mates would know where to get them." I left a wee while later. I just think socialising isn't for me anymore. lol. I also feel a sense of disappointment that some people still remember me as either a nut or an alco. lol. It's not their fault I guess. Only myself to blame.

Making this blog entry in two separate parts just makes me think how suddenly things can change. Nothing particularly drastic happened in my life over the last few hours, but I've definitely had a change in my mood. Right now I wouldn't say I feel bad, but I do feel sort of stressed or something....basically just not as upbeat and satisfied with my life as I was when I left the house earlier.

I think I need a little something to help distract myself from every day life. Tomorrow I plan on going to the gym, spending some time typing some of my autobiography (which sort of includes this blog. lol) and doing a bit of reading from a book as opposed to the internet.

If I can learn from the quote below I will go far in life.

Thought for the Day:

"The secret of how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else. was to be indifferent to that difference."

Al Capp

Pax

bEn

Wrecked

2008-07-05T01:06:00.000+01:00

I have been working my ass off this week. Between my job in Winemark and my other job in the doctors' in North Belfast I have been putting in a good few hours. It's worth it though. The money is making such a difference. I'm not as stressed due to my financial situation now and I have bought a couple of things to progress my training. I worked the two delivery days this week and so spent a lot of time lifting small objects for multiple "reps" all day. Sort of analogous to a bodybuilding routine. This totally fucked my nervous system up because I'm conditioned to lifting something very heavy a small number of times. I slept at least 12 hours after the deliveries and still felt very tired when I got up. This feeling of exhaustion meant I took 2 days off training and today, when I was squatting I didn't feel fully recovered and it didn't go quite as well as I hoped, but still good.

Tonight was a good laugh in Winemark. Some guys came in to buy 40 buds, looked young so we asked them for ID. Only one of them had ID so we refused to serve them, about 20 minutes later some guy comes in buying the exact same thing. We said we wouldn't serve him for obvious reasons, but he convinced us he didn't know the guys who were in before and eventually we said ok, but as he left I took a step outside and watched as he went up the road. We saw him meeting the guy who had been in earlier, next thing I see is my manager running up the road and trying to wrestle the beers off him. lol. I ran up and they started mouthing off, police got called and finally turned out the dude who had tried to buy the stuff originally was 18, though didn't have any ID with him. Moral of the story being, always bring your ID to the offies!!

There are loads of other obscure rules involved in working in an offies, which I haven't had totally covered yet. But weird things like not being able to serve an under 18, even if they are just buying sweets or something because we are a licensed premises.

I'm trying to clean the diet up a little now, but not so much as to sacrifice any strength. This is hard when I'm working so much and it's so convenient to just turn to something like a pre-packed sandwich or chocolate for a quick hit of low quality carbs. I've found the LA Flapjacks a great help to eat cleaner. Slow release carbs straight to hand, really convenient for work.

Thought for the Day:

I.D.

Peace

bEn

LA MUSCLE

2008-06-29T21:47:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I have some great news. I have my first sponsorship deal, with LA Muscle no less!!! I fecking love their products. They are so good. This gives me a discount off their supplements, along with nutritional advice and publicity amongst some sweet free merchandise and other stuff! Legendary. I will hopefully get a page featuring me on their site, which I will post on here if it appears at some stage. Meanwhile, check out their site:

LA MUSCLE

The site has recently had a forum added, which I think should really take off in the near future. Along with that there a some great articles on training, diet and lifestyle etc. Then there's the products, holy shit, they are awesome. lol. I've got 4.5kg of whey in the post at the moment. Woop. There is also the option of free delivery from them. Check their stuff out, best quality supplements you're ever going to come across.

One thing I totally forgot to mention was that I won the European Championships last weekend. lol. Another title in the bag, the hard work in the gym is definitely paying off! My bet on Spain also paid off. £36 to the good! Hell yeh.

Thought for the Day:

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

Vince Lombardi

Paz

bEn

Computer Rage

2008-06-29T19:15:00.000+01:00

Right now I'm having a bit of a technological nightmare. My computer is preeeetty fucked, some sort of problem with Vista. I can't shut it down or run anti virus scans or anything. I'm going to get it fixed this week. Not sure how much that will cost me. I spent ages the other day fruitlessly trying to fix it and got nowhere. It was three in the morning and I was sitting in my room shouting at a machine that couldn't reply. My neighbours probably thought I'm nuts. Why do computers annoy me so much when they don't work? I really don't know, I think it's because unlike a person who can apologise or argue back when they fuck something up, a computer just sits there doing nothing, flickering stupidly and sort of goading you. lol.

I also spent about 30 minutes on my hands and knee trying to fix the connection on my tv aerial. Eventually I just got lucky and the connection stayed and now I can watch the football. Again, I was talking to myself and slamming my fist on the floor like a raging baby. Yes, sad I know. I am also having problems with the Centaur Strength Website. It has totally crashed thanks to the server. I don't know what the hell is going on there since I can't even sign into the account to see what is going on. Shiiiite. That can just wait a while.

I will leave you for a short time while I go watch the football. I really want Spain to win since I lived in Catalunya for a few months not long ago, they play good football (as opposed to the turd Germany play) and I have some money on them! Here we go, hopefully I'll be making my next blog entry about £30 richer! :D

Thought for the Day:

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

Maya Angelou

Paz

bEn

Hall of Legends

2008-06-28T00:31:00.000+01:00

The one and only, David Attenborough has now been inducted into the hall of legends :D

The guy just oozes enthusiasm and a love for his job. He makes some of the most informative and enthralling television programs I have ever seen. I remember watching his programs from when I was a kid. The man is an absolute legend, damn, he gives slug sex a certain romanticism and makes it interesting...

"An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment."

David Attenborough

If everyone was so happy in their chosen profession and as humble as he was, the world would be a much better place for it. I think what makes him so good at his job is that he has never lost that sense of awe in learning. Similar to a child, everything seems new and he is always eager to learn, despite his already abundant knowledge in his field.

Paz

bEn

Hay fever is pure shit

2008-06-16T22:32:00.000+01:00

Haven't written on this in a good while now. Right now, hay fever is making my life an absolute fucking misery. I'm also getting really bad headaches as well. I was in Offaly yesterday competing in a weight for distance event. It's basically a weight on a chain which you swing between your legs and let go, seeing how far you can throw it. It's all about technique, timing and brute force. I'd never done it before and had shitty technique, though I managed to place 3rd with 5.24m. I wasn't too happy with that, but I know if I learn some technique I will get better. This sort of begins a bit of a transition into throwing for me. I had a go the other day with shot put and discus and I'm going to see what I take a fancy to and take it from there.

Slowly but surely I am working my way towards the COC #3. I can't wait to close it. I'm going to order a new 3 to make sure I can close it for sure for a couple of good clean reps before I contact Ironmind. This will still be a while yet, but my right hand feels strong as hell at the moment. The #2 is my bitch. I say my right hand because I'm unable to train my left due to a wrist injury. A wrist injury that I've had for almost 3 months now. I'm resting it and starting a course of anti-inflammatories, so I really hope this works as the injury is really hindering my training.

I sent away my entry form for my first ever strongman event today. I'm going to wait and see if my entry is confirmed and then I'll post on here what exactly it is. One of the events involves 130kg each hand hold for time. I'm worried about this because of my left wrist, so I am really hoping that it recovers so I can start to build some strength back up into it.

Got a job in Winemark, I've worked a couple of days there now and it's really sweet. Everyone is sound as fook, so it's all good.

Europeans this weekend. Shit. lol. I know for a fact I will bench sweet FA and even my deadlift won't be too hot. I'd like to win anyway, but at the same time I'm kinda hoping someone turns up and gives me a bit of competition because I'm cruising it, then when it comes to the worlds and I have hit the perfect peak I tear them a new asshole. lol.

On a final note, my coach Paul got his CSCS qualification, acing both papers with 85% and 93%. I always knew it, but now it's pretty much set in stone that as far as strength and conditioning goes, Paul is on a totally different level to anyone else in the country. Again, his new website will be up soon! lol.

Thought for the Day:

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin

Paz

bEn

Feel like shiiiite

2008-06-05T18:32:00.000+01:00

Yay, I have a chest infection. lol. Was getting a bit of a cold the last few days, now it's moved down into my chest and it's full-blown. Haven't been able to sleep the last few nights because my nose has been blocked and I've been too warm. So frustrating. I woke up this morning and coughed up so many varieties of green you wouldn't believe it. Quite delicious. lol. Ever get when you have a cold and you're constantly blowing your nose, then because you keep wiping it, the skin under your nose gets red and stingy? I'm like that, so fucking sore and irritating :(

I left the house to empty the bin today. Besides that I've been in bed and on the couch watching a dvd. So shitty. Was supposed to train legs today, but they feel like lead as it is, so I've decided not to.

I know some time ago that I said my coach's new website would be up and running, well, it's taken a bit longer than expected, but it should be operational within the next week or so.

As most people know, I am planning to try my hand at strongman at some stage. It looks like I have found my first competition. It's unconfirmed as of yet, since it depends on me getting membership to the association etc, but I will post here as soon as it all comes through. Along with this, I'm hoping to get some sponsorship in the near future as well. Here's hoping!

Thought for the Day:

"My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle"

Patty Duke

Peace

bEn

Hall of Legends

2008-06-01T19:41:00.001+01:00

Well, I've come up with this novel idea to entertain myself.....a hall of legends....by me. lol. I've decided that every so often I'm going to induct someone into my hall of legends. This someone could be anyone and there will probably be a few random ones in there.

So, first inductee to the hall of legends is none other than the great Arnold Schwarzenegger. Everything he touches turns to gold. A seven-time Mr Olympia, successful actor and now a successful politician. The man is unstoppable. There isn't much more to be said about him, words can't fathom his utter greatness.

"Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Relaxing

2008-06-01T19:12:00.000+01:00

Ok, really starting to enjoy the summer now. Can't remember the last time I've been so relaxed. Well, I wouldn't even say I'm relaxed now, just not crawling the walls like I usually am. lol. I've done some of the stuff that I listed the other day. Tidied my room a bit, had a shower of course and I've done some work to the Centaur Website. Check it out

Centaur Strength

Strength coming back and I'm enjoying my time in the gym a lot more. Not rushing through everything and I've got plenty of time to recover and eat right. Loving it. Had a good day in there today. Was messing about with the powersnatches, which I started last week and thought I'd have a blast with the 50kg dumbell. Managed it on the right arm. Didn't try the left, though I got 45kg with the left. 50kg is the heaviest dumbell in the gym, so I'm not sure what I do when it becomes easy :S

Just under three weeks now until the European championships. To be honest I didn't realise they were creeping up so quickly. I always thought 21st of June was far far away. But no. lol.

Well, since I've started writing this blog I've only mentioned my girlfriend once and she's not too happy about it. So, considering this I'm going to write a little bit about her. (Will hopefully stop her moaning for a wee while :P) Only joking dear. I know she will be reading this with disgust and horror on her face. She is called Laura, has beautiful blonde hair and looks like the blonde bird from Abba. Hence the picture. (That will really wind her up.) She never lets me take photos of her, but here's one that I took whilst she didn't realise. Don't mind my thumb or something in the bottom right of the picture!

Thought for the Day:

"To err is human; to forgive, divine"

Alexander Pope

Paz

bEn

First Day of Summer

2008-05-30T23:17:00.000+01:00

Today was the first day since my exams finished that I actually felt relaxed. I have been trying to sleep in and chill out the last few days, but I think because I've been so stressed recently I haven't been able to let myself loosen up. I've been going to bed late, but waking up at like 0830 and not been able to get back over to sleep. I trained legs yesterday and went balls to the wall. My back is pretty much recovered, though I am building the weight up reasonably slowly on the squats. Did my working sets with 125kg then did a set of 20. Enjoyed it, although it was a ballbuster. I squatted so much so I could sleep well. It worked. I woke up for a piss at like 0600 then didn't wake up again until 1210. lol. It felt good :) My back is feeling very strong again. 225kg working sets feeling like a toy. Good workout even though I was sprinting about the Falls Park with Paul and his dog. lol

I really wanted a good workout yesterday so I watched one of my favourite videos on youtube whilst gulping down creatine and dextrose before I left. It makes me feel like I could go into the gym and eat all the weights nevermind just lift them. If this doesn't make you want to train then you mustn't have a pulse...

Just out of interest I weighed myself on my way out of the gym. I was surprised. I'm slowly losing fat, but I'm still 17 stone. I could hardly believe it when I weighed myself. My legs are definitely getting bigger. Major chaffage in hot weather :( lol

Here's to four months of stress-free gains...

Thought for the Day

Take pride in your work

Pax

bEn

Freedom

2008-05-27T19:47:00.000+01:00

Finished my exams, four months off uni starts now. I finished with my OSCEs today. I was pretty annoyed with how I did in those as I didn't have the time to finish a couple of the examinations in the alotted time. I also got a bit rushed and panicky at times and ended up losing track of where I was at times. It was frustrating, but here's hoping I at least pass. I'm just looking forward to getting a job, earning some money over the summer and training like a madman. Hopefully I'll be strong as fook by the end of September. Coming back well from the back injury now and everything is feeling very light.

I've started adding dextrose to the creatine I take before my workout. I'm finding it definitely makes a difference. I'm not that responsive to creatine usually, but having added some dextrose I'm feeling a lot fresher or something throughout the workout. I'm also mixing a little with my post workout shake to get more insulin going and it makes the protein taste a hell of a lot nicer! :) When I blend it, it gets like a sweet foam on the top. Sooo fucking good. lol

Well, tonight I'm going to watch shit on tv and probably get a Chinese. I'm looking forward to it. Right now it doesn't seem like I'm off for the summer, I think because I'm still annoyed about the OSCE, but anyways, I know that will wear off in time.

First things on my list of things to do:

-Get a shower. I stink

-Tidy my room. It's a shit-hole and virtually everything is everywhere and covered in dust

-Get a job. I need money. Plain and simple

-Organise the IDFPA National Bench Press Champs

-Complete the Centaur website

Sooo, that's all for now. Hopefully the next time I make an entry it will be reasonably positive and I'll have realised that it's the summer!

Thought for the Day:

"Life is a long lesson in humility. "

James M. Barrie

Peace

bEn