Abiad’s Army! Sorry I’ve been away for a couple weeks, it’s been kind nuts to say the least. Before I start into the blog a lot of you may have seen my latest arm video so I wanted to give you the full workout here. When we shoot those vids we cut down a lot of the workout to keep it interesting, I know it’s boring as shit watching every set and rep.
The arm workout we shot was a superset workout. Not because I’m close to the show or anything like that, I like to switch up my arm training all the time and that arm day I just felt like that system was best. Here it is:
Straight Bar Pressdown 6 Sets (4warm up) X 20, 15, 15, 15, 12, 12
Incline DB Curl 5 Sets (4warm up) X 20, 15, 10, 8, 7
Now you can see how things really look when the cameras off. Since I’ve had a lot of nagging injuries to my elbows and wear and tear on the arms I do a lot of warm ups to get started. Even after that, as you can see, not very many of the sets are done with low reps and really heavy weight. I feel like my arms have responded to this type of training.
Ok, now that business is out of the way, let me tell you guys whats going on. I really believe when people say ‘I’m so tired, I’m giving it my all’, they really don’t realize what they have in the tank. I’m as guilty of doing this as the next guy.
Over the course of this prep, I have managed to do more in three months than I have done in the last five years. Call it OCD, ADD or whatever other disorder you got on tap, but whatever it is, it’s AWESOME!
Most of you who read my blogs know I have a shopping issue when I’m dieting. This year I took it to another level. I started by looking at cars and from there it got real. About three weeks ago I found a house online (been looking casually for months). It was about 7am, I remember because I couldn’t get back to sleep. By 4:30pm that day, I had already gone and looked at the house, met with a mortgage broker, then a lawyer, put in the offer and by 9pm I was the owner (pending a couple details), all the while, destroying the gym/cardio and getting in all my meals. Talk about an insane day.
Over the course of the next three weeks after that; I listed my condo, moved out (moving day is fun when you’re dieting..fuck), started renovations on the new house and was in by February 1st!
Sounds pretty intense huh, it gets better. In the span of those three weeks, I also, rented a nice hall, scheduled a priest, shopped for a new suit and got married to my beautiful girlfriend Sommer. Yes, I got married! We just decided to do it and we are now husband and wife, although we are having a big reception a little later (so that should be fun), maybe I can plan and do that while getting ready for the Olympia, its just the biggest show of my life.
Anyway, it’s been crazy but all of it has taught me a couple things. One, your not allowed to get married with a four inch beard. I know it sucks, it’s gone, but it’s on its way back and being Arab, that shit should be back in a couple weeks.
It’s also taught me that there is more in you than you realize. For the last three weeks my training partners have been asking me, ‘how the fuck are you doing all this on 100g of carbs a day and still having great workouts?’ Honestly, I’m just not thinking about it.
I don’t sit and think, ‘oh, its leg day, I better focus for four hours’. I go about all my business and when the clock hits 6pm, I’m at the gym and that’s all I’m thinking about for that hour. I just flip the switch from meetings to training and I’m getting it all done. I don’t believe this bullshit anymore about having to save X amount of energy for training, focusing all day to make sure your training is good or not being able to do too much while prepping for a show.
F that, I’ve decided that I can’t afford to put my life on hold for four months at a time anymore. I’ve gone to every family dinner, almost every social outing and NOTHING has slowed me down in the gym. I’m sitting at 250lbs right now and I’m shredded. I know there are some people that will look at this if I’m not 100% shredded on stage and say, ‘see he did too much’. Again, F that!
If I’m not shredded on stage it’s because of my own lazy ass or something I did wrong getting ready in the final days. I have been ready for about three weeks now with a couple cheats to slow things down. If anything, all the work has made it easier to bear the hunger of dieting by keeping me busy.
Next time you want to do something that seems outside the norm or a little crazy to those around you; do it! Don’t stop and think about why they’re not doing it and don’t sit there and let fear control what you want to do. If you want to do something, go do it and get it done however you have to and then stare at it and be proud that you conquered that shit regardless of what everyone around you said!
Sacrifice Without Regret, Fouad ‘Hoss’ Abiad www.fouadabiad.com
