Catching Up with Kuclo in the Off Season
Hey MD!
A whirlwind of things have happened over the past two months, and I have to get you guys caught up! The off season is normally a down time for me, but not this year! Over the last two months I got engaged, bought a house, moved into my new house with Allison, and remodeled and fixed up the new house! With all of that, I was still at the fire station every third day, along with traveling to numerous guest posings and appearances.
Being full bore into my offseason, things with Hany are going great! We have put our outline plan for this offseason into full effect for making the gains and improvements I need to bring to the stage for 2013. We haven’t set anything in stone yet for shows, but what is set in stone is getting some victories in 2013! I have really been focusing on switching up my training and really getting out of the throw weight around mindset and focus on making less weight harder by slowing my negatives down and squeezing the muscle while I do the movement. It really has allowed me to feel that “mind-muscle” connection. I have been getting super sore every workout.
For chest we are really focusing on squeezing through the exercises rather than just pushing weight. I have come to the realization that I know I am strong, but I don’t get judged on how strong I am. I am judged on the shape and size of my muscle and how it looks on stage. I am still sticking with dumbbell movements most of the time for presses and fly’s and incorporating FST-7 sets along with my version of high volume Krazy 8’s style sets. Changes don’t happen overnight. Patience and hard work will pay off.
For back I am really focusing on my form, which helps take away my biceps pulling much of the weight and makes sure that I have the proper muscles fire in my lats and mid back. I have picked up some awesome handles that I use for pull-down and cable row movements made my MAG (Maximum Advantage Grip) that really have helped my rowing and pull-down movements. I would definitely recommend you check them out! I will also occasionally still do some heavy pulling movements off the ground or on a rack to bring up my upper and mid back thickness.
A lot of you follow me on twitter and Instagram for pictures I post up of things I do daily, so I thank you for that! I’ll make sure I keep everyone updated on my training and how my daily life is going on MD Q&A forums, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Thank you for following and being a fan!
–Steve Kuclo