Failure. The Key to Succes.

I was hoping to be writing of some sort of success from Granite State Open. I was hoping to write that despite all my obstacles I was able to step on stage and give it my all.

It's a good thing that I said I wasn't afraid to fail, because I did. I fell way short of my goal of the GSO.

Now, that's not due to lack of effort, or poor diet.  There wasn't anything I could have done better or done different.  This is a journey - a long one - and I can't lose sight of the fact that I am coming from near morbid obesity to try and be a bodybuilder. But it doesn't make the failure any less painful.

When I decided to do this, I had one single vision in my head. Stepping on stage with my best friend Jason.  An illusion of grandeur maybe, but it was the vision that I had. I didn't make it, and he place very well and almost won the whole damn show.

That was not a statement of jealousy, it was a statement of pride and a statement of how much more it made me want it.  The fact that I could not be up there digs at me. It makes me think about how much I actually want this.

Typically this blog is just a nonsensical rant of whatever is on my mind at the time.  This time around, its different.  It's not funny. It's not nonsensical. 

I have seen where I want to be.  I know how I need to train to get there.  I'm learning all I can about nutrition to make my body do what most people can't, gain muscle and lose fat.  I am going to go even harder in the gym, and be even more strict on my eating. Though I have failed, I am not giving up. I am not surrendering.  I am not going to say bodybuilding isn't for me, tuck my tail and run. No, this is a passion, and come hell or high water, I will step on that stage.

A good thing that came from my not competing at the GSO, was being backstage. I have been there with Jay several times and each time it becomes more and more useful.  The people you meet, the stories you hear, and the inspiration you get make you want it even more.  These men and women do what most people dream of, and on the day of their competition, to look me in the eye and tell me that I CAN do it. That I CAN succeed. That one day it WILL be me on stage.  It lights a fire that cannot be described with words.

And please remember this, no matter what your goal may be, never quit.  Nothing makes me angrier than hearing that someone just quit.  People who I literally have nothing invested in tell me that they decided not to run that 5k, tell me that they will compete in a show or meet when they feel ready (which typically is never), tell me that they can't eat a certain way because their schedule "just won't let me", I get a little angry inside. Quitting is easy. Succeeding is not.

Never take the easy way. It may seem like  its not a big deal, and perhaps you do have every intention of finishing what you start, but actually finishing, actually succeeding is much more satisfying then the temporary feeling of relief. The road to the top is not straight up and down. But it is worth the time. It's worth the blood sweat and tears. The grind is where character is made.

To those friends and my family who have supported me this far, and the new friends who I met and breathed new life into my goal, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have no idea what it means to me. I am honored and privileged to have you on my journey with me.

This is just the beginning my friends. Stay tuned, its about to get serious.

Stay strong,

-Brann

Progression, Manliness & Father's Day

As I'm typing this I'm just over 130 days out of my show.  Holy crap.  You want to talk about being nervous?  I was playing it all cool until the entry packet showed up in my email.  Now I'm basically losing my mind.  But I'm not afraid to fail.  I have recently listened to a speech made by a fairly well-known bodybuilder by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He said that you can't be afraid to fail.

Let's be honest here.  I am down from about 400 pounds.  I had been powerlifting for about 2 years and just decided, basically on a whim, to enter a bodybuilding show.  I had never even done an official pose until about 6 months ago.  I didn't know a lot about it (and still have a lot to learn).  I am as green as they come.
To walk into the GSO and expect to take the Mr. Novice title would be a dream come true.  Is it going to happen?  Probably not.  Am I going in there expecting to lose?  No.  I'm just being realistic.  I just want to go in and let them know just who Kyle Brann is.  So I am not afraid to fail.  This is my stepping stone.

With all that being said, I am still dieting down like a mad man.  Steps have been made, and progress has been made.  I'm eating just a hair over 2000 calories a day, and I'm doing cardio six days per week.  Aren't you jealous? 

It is working.  Lots of people have commented and they're positivity and kind words help me a lot.  The measurements and scale are giving me numbers that I am quite fond of and Mike (my nutritionist) is psyched for me.  It seems like I am making progress -- though sometimes it feels like I'm just spinning my wheels.

But that's the way it goes sometimes.  Every day can't be a winner.  You just have to suck it up and work harder.  Be more strict on your diet.  By no means am I saying that this is easy.  It's not.  If it were, everyone would do it.  Everyone would be running marathons, and benching their bodyweight for reps.  Everyone would have shredded abs, and their diets would be clean.  There would be no McDonald's, no Dairy Queens, and no cake on your birthday.  People like me and the gym that I work at would be out of business and offices would close for 2 hours a day so all the employees could go for their lunch time jog.  But this is not the world we live in.

Our world is not easy and to succeed, you have to bust your ass, all the time.  It's getting up at 4:00 in the morning to do your cardio.  It's not saying "I worked out today," so I can have that scoop of ice cream.  It's putting 100 percent into your workout even though you feel weak and you don't want to be in the gym.  Nobody ever go anywhere by quitting.  Remember that guy who quit?  Neither do I.

You frequently hear the expression "man up".  Even girls say this, which I find to be confusing and odd.  It is physically impossible for a woman to man up -- unless she is taking some testosterone supplements then I'm sure you will have that deeper voice and chest hair in no time.  But when it comes to manning up and being a man, I have a few things that I have deemed necessary in order to be considered a man.  They are as follows:

Lift weights.  This is a manly activity, one that I and a lot of my friends engage in frequently. Now I'm not saying that you have to set a world record on bench press, or squat 1000 pounds, but for goodness sake, grab a pair (of dumbbells) and lift them.  In fact, lifting had been my main source of manliness for several years now.  Accepted substitutions for lifting weights are big game hunting, alligator wrestling, lumberjack-ing, and various other dangerous outdoor activities engaged by flannel-clad dudes with beards.
Grow facial hair. There is nothing that screams 'I am a man!' quite as loud as a beard. Other forms of facial hair are acceptable.  Just grow something and if you're going to have just a mustache, make it a handle-bar, put some wax in it or at the very least shave it into the shape of the Barman symbol.  If you don't, a moustache can be just plain ol' creepy.
Fix, solve, rebuild.  I am not handy, but I can make somethings work.  Every man should have the ability to fix something.  I don't care if its getting the bathroom door to stop squeaking or re-assembly of a turbine engine, find a problem, and fix it. If you can't fix it, rebuild it.  Use duct tape and a hammer.  I've found both of those to be invaluable tools.
Drive a stick. This one can apply to rules of being a woman as well (though I have not made this list yet).  Everyone should be able to drive any car.  Now I'm not saying that you can jump out of your buddy's civic and hop in the cockpit of an F-16, but you get the picture.  Knowing how to drive a standard can be your last alternative to getting home or standing outside a bar in the Dirty Lew when you're the DD and your friends car is a 5 speed -- this is of course assuming that you don't have any money for cab fare, and who wants to leave their car, alone, overnight, in Lewiston?

So, now that I have finished pontificating like a boar, let me remind you that Father's Day is right around the corner.  I have always looked up to my dad.  Even though I'm sure I have been a turd minimally three-billion times to him, he has always been proud of me and stood behind me no matter what the circumstance.  For a long time he was Kyle Brann's Dad.  Now I'm known as Gene Brann's son, and that makes me proud as hell.  My Dad has always been the manliest man that I have ever known, and personally I don't think that John Wayne holds a candle to him when it comes to being a man.

This still rings true today.  I still see my dad as this jacked-up dude who can fix anything, lift anything, solve any problem, drive any vehicle, laugh in the face of danger, and grow one of the gnarliest beards I have ever seen.  In my eyes, my dad will always fall somewhere between a lumberjack and Rambo when it comes to manliness.

So, I dedicate this blog to my Father.  I hope that I can be half the man you are someday Dad.  When it comes to my rules on manliness, you set the bar.  Happy Father's Day.

Until next time.
-Brann

Kate moves out...for a week.

"Tell Kate she might want to get her own apartment for a few days."

Those words came from Mike Foley, my nutritionist and a very knowledgeable, motivating man.  As I had reported in earlier posts, I had begun to hit a wall with my diet.  This was expected.  What was not expected was the dip into, nay, dive into calories that I have experienced in the past few weeks. 

Gone were the days of 12 ounces of chicken and 10 ounces of beef.  Gone were the salads that I had grew to enjoy so much at the end of the day.  Say hello to a cup of broccoli and two cups of Egg Beaters.  For some of you that may sound like a lot of food, but to me it barely made me not hungry any more.

To say that I was testy, would be a  HUGE understatement.  If Kate didn't want to get her own apartment, I wanted to get one of my own.  I was an ogre.  I hated everything and everyone.  Guess it makes sense when you take 1000 calories out of your diet you become grumpy. (Kate didn't move out, but did call me a few names.  Give you a hint, one of them rhymes with cash mole.)

However the dive in to my caloric pool worked.  Eight pounds in a week.  Poof like some mystic form of fat magic, it was gone.  It's actually not magic.  It's the basic premise of weight loss.  Caloric output greater than caloric intake equals weight (body fat) loss.  For those of you who are math nerds allow me to make an equation for you:  CO>CI=-W(BF).  Or something like that.

As for my training, high volume is still ruling in the gym.  Working my butt off for more reps and trying to keep the weights high.  Not the easiest thing losing weight and keeping strength.  One can only serve two masters for so long before something has to give. 

I knew getting into this that my strength was going to suffer, but I didn't think it would effect me mentally as much as it did.  For someone who -for a long time- considered 8-10 reps as "high reps" doing anything above 12 just down right blows, and the weight that I put up for those reps is significantly lower than the PR breaking numbers I had put up in years past.  Aesthetics are wonderful but a bruised ego hurts for a while.

This brings me to my next point.  It was something I knew for a long time but I am finding more and more that people need to check there ego at the door when they walk into the gym.   Everyone is there for themselves, not you.  So, believe me when I say nobody is watching you workout.  If you do something impressive, maybe they are, maybe.  But if you're constantly trying to do something impressive, nobody cares. So you can stop looking around after you drop the dumbbells that were too heavy for you in the first place.  Excessive grunting is just annoying for everyone in the gym, it makes you look like a tool and is a sign of a low IQ.  If you don't know how to do something, ask.  You want people to look at you at the gym? Doing bicep curls on the leg extension machine is one way to do it.

These are just some of the things that drive me nuts.  I'm no better than any one else, and neither are you.  I applaud you for coming in the gym, the hardest lift of all is your butt off the couch, but don't make my gym time suck because you want to show the cutie on the stretch mat how much you can bench.  Chances are she can do 135, on the Smith, with a spotter too.

Maybe I'm still a little grumpy from my diet change...

Til next time.

-Brann

Circle K Bananas

You ever wonder why you're doing something?  Walk into a room and forget what you went in there for?  Aimlessly stroll through the supermarket with no clue what you needed?  I have.  You have.  Don't lie to me now.

For a while thats kind of how I felt with my training.  I knew what I had to do.  I knew how I had to do it...but I found my self just trying things for the fun of it.  Results?  Did I get results?  Absolutely, positively not.

Personally, I feel that without a well programmed routine your training will go nowhere and stall out.  Thats not just a feeling, thats truth.

In my last post, I mentioned that my training partner and myself were embarking on a journey in the land N.O.V. and for a few months we are hitting Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program extraordinarily hard.  And we recently finished our first four week cycle.

Both of us put up some great numbers.  Very pleased but not satisfied with the results.  We both feel very full and Jay feels (and looks) like he has put on some size.  My body fat percentage has gone down and I feel strong.  First time I can say that in a while.

The Boring But Big template was the weapon of choice.  The basic premise of the template is:  you use a primary lift for your 5/3/1 (strength) program, then you use a secondary lift for hypertrophy followed by calf and ab work on leg day and tri, bi, and back work on upper body day.

Like I said earlier, I was pleased with results, but felt like it left some body parts lagging a bit.  So, we just reprogrammed our lifts, changed the assistance work and now we're back at it.

Some of the best numbers I hit were:  a STRICT standing military press 180 pounds for a set of 5, deadlifted 355 for a set of 6, a 285 pound bench for 7 and a 325 pound squat for a set of 10.  I was very pleased with the squats.

I have always considered the squat to be my hardest lift.  Technique is so crucial and for the longest time my squat, to be kind, stunk on ice.  Not to mention, like most guys in their late teens and early twenties, train three things when they hit the gym.  They are - in order of importance mind you - biceps, chest, abs.  To play it safe they may even work in another biceps day.  Gotta get the guns bro!

Now that I feel my squat has gone just slightly above sub par, it is slowly becoming one of my favorite lifts.  Not that my numbers are monstrous,  but I have been feeling very strong when the bar is on my back, and that speaks volumes.

Speaking of volume, the music that most people listen to while they workout is crap.  Thats why I thought I would give you a list, a top 5 if you will, of the songs that I listen to when I have a big lift to get done, or some real troublesome assistance work that just wont let you breathe.

There is really no particular order to these, I like them.  They seem to help me when I lift.  If you can't get work done with these songs, I really don't know what to tell you...I just cant believe that some people lift listening to Adelle...I'm looking at you Farley.  So here they are:

1)  Pantera - I'm Broken
This is my original do work song.  Pantera is one of my favorite bands of all time.  This song is just filled with so much anger and makes you want to crush something...makes me want to crush iron. 

2)  Hatebreed - Escape (Die Hard Edit)
When Hatebreed covers Metallica, it's a good day.  I have had some of my best lifts to this song.  Deadlifts especially. 

3)  Staind - Not Again
Let me be blunt.  I don't like Aaron Lewis.  I think, for a while, he was softer than fresh dog poop, but when this album came out, he gained a lot of respect with this crushing little ditty.

4)  Rosella - Bullet Proof
I found this song on an EFS motivational video.  It is by a relatively unknown band, which I am quite fond of, and most of it is sang through a walkie talkie.  You cannot put a price tag on that. 

5)  Clutch - The Regulator
This song is slower than most.  I usually leave this song on repeat when I'm warming up for a big lift.  For some reason it just puts me in the zone before going absolutely BANANAS!!!

Which leads me to my closing point. Buy your bananas at your local Circle K.  They are almost always ripe, and you can get about 17 of them for about a buck.

Trust me on this one, besides Jason, I eat more bananas than a starving monkey.

Stay strong.

-Brann

Stalling in the Diet, Reformatting Lifting Routine & Leg Day Hell

Well, kids, this is my first entry, hope it comes out as well here as it looked in my brain.



Stalling in the Diet
I've started my journey towards my first bodybuilding show.  I have to tell you, that even thought I've only been "living the lifestyle" for a few months now, I have to say that I'm addicted to it (we'll see how I feel about that when I'm two weeks out from the show).  I love it.  And I'm very lucky to have the support from my friends, my family and especially Kate, she does have to live with me after all. 

The first few months of the diet - which is the hardest part - I saw great success.  I lost over 20 pounds, over 6 percent in body fat an well over 5 inches off my waist.  Huge success for me.  Then it happened.  It smacked me in the face HARD.  I hit "the wall". 

For anyone who has ever hit a wall in their training, diet, what-have-you, you know what it's like.  Its a very sobering experience.  I've hit many a wall in my training before.  And being relatively young and actually quite stupid, I just backed up and rammed face first into it again.  Eventually one just has to stop and take a look at what their sticking points are.  I'm learning to do that in my training, and with the help of my nutritionist Mike, I'm learning to do that with my diet too.

I tell clients all the time not to get frustrated.  I guess it's easy to say when you're on the other side of it.  But doing what he does and being as good at it as he is, Mike played with my diet and to quote him:  "going to have you get strong, perform high for two weeks and then really diet down."  Game face bro.

Reformatting the Lifting Routine
So strength training is where it's at for me.  I love it.  I would linger in the realm of heavy triples and singles and spend hours in the gym only doing a few things.  That was fun, and I was putting up some decent numbers, but the problem was it wasn't great for symmetry.  Nor was it good for the high volume training that I needed to do.  So for a few weeks starting back in August I took a break from Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program, which I highly recommend for anyone to try if their goal is to get strong.  It's simple, effective and easy to use.  Who doesn't want that?

Enter John Meadows and Mountain Dog Training.  I've never met John.  I've never met Jim Wendler either.  But both their programs have left me in a sweaty heap on the floor. 

Mountain Dog Training, in a nutshell, is a hypertrophy based program that maximizes muscle growth, but focuses on saving your joints and giving you a vicious pump.  It does what it claims. 

After suffering through several weeks of this savage training (if you want to try this, look for the article that John was featured in in April 2012 Muscle & Fitness, has a very easy to follow beginner's type workout) I was talking with Jason, and be both decided to go back to 5/3/1.  We want to put on some muscle size and gain some strength back in our "off season". 

Jason, for those of you who don't know is my best friend.  He is the man who talked me into all this insanity, but he is also the man who is helping me every single step of the way.  He hooked me up with Mike and is the craziest workout partner anyone could ever ask for.  Jason also just took 1st Place in the Novice Class at Granite State Open back in October.

So long story short, Jay and I have started 5/3/1 this week, and I'm anxious to post all the results.  Keep an eye out folks.

Leg Day Hell
So since I haven't finished my first week of 5/3/1 I'll show you what 75 minutes of Leg Day Hell looks like.  This was the last high volume, hypertrophy based leg routine I did looked like.  I'd like to tell you that it wasn't hard at all, and that it was easy.  I'd be lying.

Seated Leg Curl (3x10 warm-up) 4x10 working
Squats 135x8, 225x8, 275x8, 315x8, 315x8
Leg Press 135x8, 225x8, 315x8, 405x8 then strip set 10 of each weight pyramid down
Leg Extensions 4x8
Walking Lunges 3x30

I didn't put the weight I used for the curls or extensions because no one cares. 

Hope you enjoyed the read.  Til next time...