One and a half reps

I work out at very low key gym...it's not a destination sorta place or a place that attracts particularly hard core lifters or anything like that so it is pretty rare that I see someone doing something different or new.  Plus lately I've been working out at 06h00 -- just me and old people who can't sleep at that hour! So it was cool last week to spot a French guy who was busting his tail doing bench presses with a pair of 25 lbs plates on the bar.  I was kinda surprised he wanted a spot, he looked way stronger than such a puny weight.  I asked him how many reps he was going for and he said 8 and I almost suggested he could do way more and then he said that he was doing 1 and a half reps.  I had no idea what he meant so when he started to alternate between full reps and partial reps I realized how hard the exercise really was.  When he was done I told him that was probably the hardest set I've ever seen someone do and he replied that ya, the alternating totally fucks the muscle adaptation...a great technique to challenge the neuromuscular pathways!

There is a discussion of this technique here.

This blog was supposed to be about my progress in the gym but really I should rename it to "Fouad's biggest fan" or something like that...let me explain...

First though, the gym: things are going well.  My shoulder seems to finally be healing and I'm about to start on my major mass-building phase for the winter.  Last winter I made the best gains of my life so I'm optimistic that I can repeat the diet and training and repeat the gains or even improve on 'em.

Fouad's Biggest Fan:

The Olympia was last weekend.  Nope didn't get to watch it and even the web re-brodcast was a bit too much for me this year.  Still I'm pretty happy to see that there is a new Mr. O.  The Dex vs Jay stuff over at Flexonline was pretty lame but glad to see the best physique emerge as the winner for a change.  I was also glad to see that Phil Heath lived up to the hype and placed an impressive third.  The crazy thing about Heath though is the marked imbalance between his right and left arm development -- I've never seen such an obvious difference!

Denis Wolf and his legion of fans have gotta be disappointed with his 4th place finish.  He looked way better on Saturday than on Friday but the 07 Wolf was far superior to the 08 Wolf.  I saw an interview with Wolf that said for the first time ever he had someone look after his contest prep for him -- Chad Nichols I think...too bad they didn't give the prep a dry run for another show.  Still Wolf will be back next year to battle it out with Heath and Dexter.

The other person I really hope to be up there battling it out for the top is Fouad Abiad.  Not sure how many plugs I can give the guy but if  you haven't read his blog yet go read it NOW!  Fouad's blog shows what an articulate, honest, and real guy he is.  It has made me into a huge fan.  This is kinda new for me, being a "superfan"...I'm a bit freaked out that I'm going to do crazy things that will embarrass both he and myself...I've already mentally constructed several e-mails to him offering to help with his website, kill people for him, that sort of thing.  But I think the best thing I can do for the guy who I think is one of the brightest stars in the future of the sport is to send some e-mails to the BC Bodybuilding Assoc suggesting, well pleading with them to get Fouad to guest pose at either their upcoming November show or at the Provincials in July.  That's not too crazy, right???