Weights

Craigslist was very good to me today. I was able to pick up a set of 75-100# hex dumbbells for $50. Since I don't have room for all six pairs, I ended up splitting the set with a coworker. I kept the 75, 85, & 95s. That's over 500# of weight for $25, or less than $0.05/lb. Normally you would pay at least $0.50 a pound for these things, so I'm really happy I found this deal!

It will still be a long while before I am actively using these though. I need to find a pair of 55s and 65s to complete my set. Then I'll use some platemates to fill in the five pound gaps.

Exercises

I was looking at the stats for my blog and noticed some people were coming here looking for information on how to do certain exercises. I'm not an expert on that, so I will just point you to the best sites I know for that information. The two books several posts below are also invaluable resources for this kind of info.

• Exercise Instruction
  
• Bodybuilding.com's Exercise Database
• Dumbbells Only
• Barbells Only
• Cables Only
• Bodyweight Only
• Machines Only
• Other
• ExRx Exercise & Muscle Directory
• iPod Gym - videos for your iPod
• Routines
  
• Classic High Intensity Training (HIT) Workout
• HIT programs on Bodybuilding.com
• DrDarden.com
  

Tech: Tivo Series 3 Coming Soon

From Zatz Not Funny:

TiVo has notified both the FCC and cable operators that CableCARD compliant HD Series3 units are currently being tested and should be released to retail… soon!

I can't wait for this to come out so that I can subscribe to Verizon's FiOS television offering. Currently we have DirecTV with TiVO, and it is too hard to give up TiVO and go to a crummy DVR.

Tech: Delicious Monster

Delicious Monster Library, the home media cataloging software for OSX is on sale. Every week the price drops $5, and it is currently at $25. I couldn't justify paying $40 for it, but for $25 I decided to bite. The cool feature of this software is the ability to use a webcam or DV camera as a barcode scanner, so that you don't have to input everything manually. There were only a few movies I own that it had trouble reading. The software industry needs more innovative people like Wil Shipley.

New Routine

I've been trying to decide on a new routine over the past week or so. In the meantime, I have been doing a two day split between upper and lower body. I want to improve my legs & back the most right now, so I've decided to dedicate more time to working them. Therefore, I've chosen a three day split between legs, back/shoulders, and chest/arms, doing abs on the first and last day. I'm thinking I will do three days on, then two days off.

I'm planning on starting this routine tomorrow, and doing it for at least 8 weeks, so (July 15 - Sept 9). I will evaluate my progress at that point and decide to continue with the routine or switch things up again. I'm also going to start having an extra protein shake per day in order to increase my calories for this bulking phase.

8 week bulking routine:

Legs/Abs: squats, db lunges, bb calf raises, db calf raises, leg extensions, leg curls, swiss ball crunch, reverse swiss ball crunch

Back/Shoulders: straight legged deadlifts, pullups, bent over db rows, superman, bb shrugs, db lateral raises, db military press

Chest/Arms/Abs: flat/incline bb bench (alternate), incline/flat db flyes (alternate), dips, bent over db extensions, chinups, bb curls, oblique crunches, stomach vacuums

Books on my bookshelf

If someone were to ask me to recommend a couple books to get started with a program, these two would be at the top of my list. The Home Workout Bible is even good if you are not working out at home. It covers all the major exercises and how to perform them based on the equipment you have (bodyweight only, dumbbells, barbells, etc). The High Intensity Training book is useful to help layout a program for getting started. HIT uses full body workouts, which IMO is a great idea for beginners. I have both of these books, and I am still referring to them every now and then. The bible is especially useful when you want to change up your routine.

Progress

Been really bad about updating here. I'm putting my progress photos here to hold myself accountable. I'm about to start a new phase of bulking for the rest of the year.