Photo by phillipmak

Barefoot Jump Rope
75 jumps

Lax Ball work
Focusing on QL injury site

Flat DB Presses
30×8
40×8
50x3x8

Cable crossover
40x3x12

Pullups
30 total reps

DD Handle pullups
30 total reps

DB Shrugs
45×20
100x2x12
115x3x8

Fat Gripz bodyweight hangs from Chinup bar
4×10 second holds

Sand bucket
2×10 reps each hand

Done. back is still feeling good and jacked up, but not in a bad way at all. I think I’m going to keep doing a bunch of chins and pullups until I get to the point i can do 100 in a workout, or get bored of them. Whichever is first. Shrugs will stay unti I get some traps. May be a while. hahaha I really had fun with todays workout though, and hope that the oher workouts, this week and next, are as effective. I can feel my back starting to get sore now, so hopefully that is a good sign!

Sorry guys for the total lack of updates from me. I trained last week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. You’ve already seen Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was, quite possibly, my worst day in the gym I can remember. i did manage to set 2 PRs however. Injuries.

Started with the standard warmup as far as jumprope, soft tissue mobilization, and stretching, and proceeded to box jumps. Was jumping on a 37″ box. On what was literally the last jump, I missed it, and fell off, landing on my shit arm. My elbow still feels like shit, and my shoulder makes a grinding noise that wasn’t there before. It hurts too. Injury number one.

After a few minutes to get the feeling back in my arm/hand, went ahead and continued on to deadlifts. Started at 135, and worked up to 705. Was going to try to pull it for a couple of reps. About knee high on the first rep, my grip went, and something in my back popped. Injury number 2. At this point, I just quit for the day.

Thursday, the back literally kicked my ass, from the time I woke up. It didn’t feel bad, when i woke up. Got up to piss and get a dip, and as soon as I stood up out of bed, it locked up and literally put me on the floor. Awesome. NOT. Gimped around in pain all day until about 330 that afternoon. Went over to IFAST, where a buddy of mine, Mike Robertson works. For those of you who aren’t aware of Mike, you should be. He is a rehab/corrective guy, and his stuff is AMAZING. He and his partner Bill Hartman were a HUGE help to me when my hips were so jacked up I coudlnt squat to parallel with less than 405lbs, and I figured that perhaps he could help with my back. He did. After about 20 minutes of talking, “ghetto” ART (his term), and some lacrosse ball work, I went from being able to bend over to where I could touch my knees with my finger tips (about 6″ ROM) to being able to touch my toes with minimal discomfort. He also told me that I have injured something in my QL, and should be better in about 2 weeks. So that’s what I have been dealing with here, injury and training wise. Good times.

Monster Milk by Cytosport

This is the first of what hopefully becomes a list of reviews. There are two reasons that I do this. The first one is for my personal training clients. I have a lot of younger athletes that come in, and, unfortunately, kids are seriously swayed by the advertising they see. They ask me all the time my thoughts and input on a HUGE range of supplements. Huge! It also happens that the same kids that I am training are also asking about a product they saw in a magazine. The second part of this is purely selfish. For whatever reason, as long as I have been lifting weights, I have had an almost obscene obsession with supplements. My views on them have changed quite a bit, but I am still really interested in the industry. Sometimes they pan out, sometime they dont.

I bought this Muscle Milk at the GNC in the mall here in town. But wait, Jason, you hate GNC! You’re right, I do. I was in a pinch, and didn’t have the days to wait for some shipping. Also had some stuff coming from another company already. The Monster Milk was “On Sale” for 35 bucks for 2 pounds. This was the cheapest that they had in the store. And now, I know why. At least I think I do. It was kind of surprising, as I remember being a fan of the original Muscle Milk.

Individual product specs aside, there were some things that I HATED about this, and the reason I give it the review that I am. First, and for nearly everyone, was the taste. While the label promised it would “taste like a REAL milkshake” I fund the opposite to be true, unless you are into gasoline flavored milkshakes. okay, i did use a bit of exaggeration here, its not quirte gasonline, but it is chemical. I don’t know specifically WHAT caused this taste, I think it was the MCTs in it, but it was an overpowering chemical taste. Absolutely awful. Wondering if it was just my palate, I mixed it a few different ways. I used milk, and I used water. Used a lot and a little od both of them. I used more powder, and I used less. Every time, the same result. Sweet flavor dominated by a nasty chemical taste.

Mixability was also a big issue with Monster Milk. Monster Milk was actually able to defeat my Blender Bottle. This is a first, ever, and I have had these blender bottles for almost 4 years. I seriously think that these could blend raw meat. They’re awesome. That being said, Monster Milk showed them who was boss. I tried using room temp water, hoping that would improve its ability to mix up. Nope. No change. I even sat and shook one shaker cup full of the stuff for literally 3 minutes. STILL had clumps. In this day and age of instantized proteins, this is ridiculous. I thought maybe it was due to the product being compressed inside the scoop, so I just limp wristed a scoopful. Same thing. CLUMPS.

The nutrient profile was the one redeeming factor in my eyes. 25 grams of good protein a scoop, and only 2 grams of sugar. Actually has fiber in it too, which was nice. That’s about it though. I eat well enough and with enough variety I dont worry about the vitamin or mineral content of the product. It also has aminogen in it, which is an enzyme that helps digest protein. This is always nice, especially if you are eating TONS of protein. Muscle Milk also contains Creatine in the form of Kre Alkalyn. The amount per serving is only a gram though, so I dont think it would really make a noticable difference.

All in all, I was pretty disappointed in this supplement, and the purchase in general. I know that it was only 35 bucks, but still. This product just didnt do anything for me, outside of having an impressive label. All told, however, I wouldnt recommend this to anyone. The taste and mixability were bad, and I just cant justify dropping another 35-60 bucks to find out if i just got “a bad can.” Sorry Cytosport. Only going to get me once.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know there are a lot of things going on here. Be patient with me, as I really have no idea about programming and stuff on the backend of the site here. I’m sure that you will run into things that don’t work, and might not look right. Fear not, I’m working on it!

Jason