www.johnraper.co.uk

I'm online! :-)

Keeping the dream alive

Hello all. :-)

Been a while hasn't it? Hope everyone is well. Dissertation and exams are over, university is over and I'm being summoned to enter the real world.

All good in the hood though. :-)

Got my fleshless torso down the gym on Sunday for all of half an hour. Pesky foreigners were shouting across the gym to each other so I went home. Grrrr. But what I did manage to accomplish was this:

Chest Press (flat): 1x10 @ 12kg, 1x10 @ 10kg, 1x5 @ 10kg.
Chest Press (incline): 3x8 at 8kg.
Shoulder Press: 1x10 at 8kg.

Rowing - 500m... a struggle to say the least! Unlike last time I did this at the end. Last time after I hadn't been for ages I got quickly exhausted doing this first, which dented my entire workout!

Now for the bad news... I'm moving back home in a couple of weeks as my accommodation runs out on my flat... subsequently this means I've had to cancel my gym membership. :( But I had to give a month's notice, so it doesn't run out till June 30th.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll pay it a visit again before I leave for good! It's been a rollercoaster year, it's just a shame that university got in the way of gymming from March onwards. Anyway, I'll be posting now and again!

Keep it real monkeys. See you soooooooooooooon. :-)

The Unincredible Hulk

Well, well, well... where to begin! Got my lazy backside down the gym last night for the first time in six weeks, what an absolute joke! I've lost most of my strength but I'm not sure doing what I did in this order helped matters...

Rowing - 500m - as usual I had it on the hardest setting (10). I was pretty worn out when I'd finished, and rowing the final 100m at the fastest possible speed was tough. I managed a time of 4:38 which is about 10 seconds slower than normal.

Had a rest and hit the bench press which actually wasn't too bad. I did 2x10 at 20kg and 2x5 at 25kg, pretty pleased with that.

Chest press was next, had a dodgy bench which didn't help and by the time I was able to move benches I'd got no energy left! Managed 2x10 at 8kg (crept up to 12kg before), then attempted 12kg which felt damn heavy. Managed 2 reps... then went back to 10kg and did an extra 6 reps.

Shoulder press wasn't too bad, I did 2x10 at 8kg.

Lat pulldown - 2x10 at 25kg.

That was all, I was drained. Less reps and one less set for most of these! Just shows you what happens when you suddenly stop exercising. Oh well, at least there were no stalkers around!

Since my 1-year gym membership doesn't expire like I thought it did, I'm going to try and continue to go in and around my exams, which are this month. I'd love to get back to the levels I was at before. I'm going to try and keep going until I find graduate employment/no longer live here. Hope y'all keeping well and fitter than I am!

Generic words

Greetings digital world, I've got nothing to blog tonight about but I thought I'd make a post anyway! It's all work and no play at the mo - dissertation's due in at the end of April so I'm writing and coding like a dog (at least I should be :P) trying to get it done. 2 weeks off at Easter (bizarre but nice) to wrap that up.

Then 2 exams spread over two months between May and June... then finito! This year has flown by.

On the gym side of things, I've hit a bit of a dead end and I'm not really going anywhere at the minute, but hopefully when I start going regularly again (rather than max of 2 times a week) things will improve. I can't wait to get back in to full swing mode again!

Anyways, hope you're all fine and dandy, it's back to the typewriter for tonight... yuck.

Ciao for nowza!

Currently listening to: The Music - Disco.

If music be the food of love...

Write about it. :-)

If I'm not in the gym, chances are I'll be embracing the other thing I love - music. I love music in every shape and form... be it guitar, singing, iPods or otherwise. So with this in mind, I'll be adding music-related posts every now and then (hopefully one per week) which will talk about any new bands I've heard of and discovered, and reasons for you to go check em out. Rolling out the first...

Artist: Tinariwen
So, what's the story, morning glory?
Well, I was sat in a hairdressers last week, flicking through the shiny pages of a music mag. There was an interview on Thom Yorke, and after a near-fatal groin accident, I managed to settle and contain myself. I saw the printed words "...I like Tinariwen..." and promptly slapped the name into my phone. They're from the country of Mali, Africa and consist of Arabic vocals, African guitars and blues-infested rhythms. And I bet they sound even better with Cannabis. Go and jump head first on the bandwagon here.

Stalker-free workout

(For a change!)

DAY ONE

Dumbell flye (flat): 3x10 @ 12kg.
Dumbell flye (incline): 2x7 @ 10kg, 2x6 @ 10kg.
Shoulder press: 1x8 @ 8kg, 1x6 @ 8kg, 1x8 @ 8kg.
Seated bicep curls: 1x10 @ 6kg, 1x7 @ 6kg, 1x4 @ 6kg.
Lat pulldown: 2x10 @ 30kg, 1x10 @ 25kg.
Cable grip press: 3x10 @ 7.5kg.
Cable grip curl: 2x10 @ 5kg, 1x10 @ 7.5kg.

FB Balance: Pete attempting to push me off when I'm holding a bar across my shoulder blades. Three times. Suceeding once. Not impressed.

Rowing: 500m.

Had a "nice" session tonight. The Peternator insisted he was accompanying me around for the evening so I had to put up with his immaturity, similar to that of a 5-year-old. Other than that, it was muchos funos! And some girls in short skirts on the way home made for pleasant eye candy.

Oooooh, by the way... I was booked in for SPEED DATING tonight but it got cancelled (an excuse to go to the gym instead, you see!) :-( Rubbish! I was looking forward to chatting up some 35-year old slop badgers, but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to do that again sometime!

Words on a screen. See you next time!

Roadrunning stalker

Yeah, you heard me correctly. Well I wouldn't really call him a stalker but he freaked me right out! I went to the gym today at 2.30 so I could do a massive workout to make up for my inactivity over the past week.

I get there. All is calm and bright. After about an hour, having done most of my usual Day One plan, an Asian guy's watching me do my shoulder presses, and I'm aware of him out the corner of my eye.

"You do that good" he said... (LOL!) To which I replied "thanks" and gave the nod, like you do.

So then he starts making small talk about protein powders being the be-all-and-end-all holy grail of achieving muscle mass. I told him NADAS, unless taken with the right food you'll get nowhere. Did he listen? Course not. So he goes...

"I take PROMAX" he said. "You got car? I show you a shop after here. I drive you." LOSER!

"No thanks mate, I've err... I've gotta be somewhere."

"Where you going?" I thought like telling him to F-off at this point, and I should have done, it was none of his business where I was going. I said "university" and I wish I hadn't.

"Oooh, I can go that way!" he replies. Anyway, after I told him I wasn't up for any dogging, he leaves me alone for a short while... until I hit the mats to do some planks and stuff.

"You do back?" he said. "Can I show you back?" My brain said "NO" but my mouth said "Sure!" So he shows me the back machine. MACHINE. I hate machines now! He's 2 months into gymming, he's excusable. :-) "Give me 15 reps" so I did, hoping he'd leave me alone if I commanded his wishes. Why was I playing this game?! After he blabbed on some more about protein powders, he disappeared. I thought to myself, "I'm calling it a day, I'm gonna get outta here."

Are you still with me? Here's the exciting part. In between the resistance room (where I am) and the cardio room, there is a mats area (where I thought he'd gone to). There's a side door near the resistance room, which, when passing through, can lead one to a handy staircase, which then leads to the changing rooms. So I decide to make a run for it. I manage to execute this perfectly, and get to the changing rooms without him seeing me. RESULT! So I go in the changing rooms...

"Oh, you finish now?" .................

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

After some more small talk I said, "I have to go now, bye!"

Luckily he didn't follow me.

Have a good weekend all, and stay clear of anyone who looks like they want to have your babies x