Back to Reality

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything, and it has also been a while since I have stuck to my diet...and it shows! I had spring break last week and decided to try some new thing I haven't had time for in the past. Everyday I did 2 a days and lifted chest/shoulders 3 days and 2 days for legs. I have never done such frequent training for each of those bodyparts. But I found that not only could I handle the amount of work I set personal records.

I did 465lbs in a box squat which is almost 100 lb improvement in 4 or 5 weeks.

But while PR's are great I am getting a bit of my fat back. So today I started back on the path to weight loss.
The thing I hate about weight loss workouts is the feeling of getting my ass kicked. I like to lift heavy weights and rest, then repeat. But I found a solution. I use big weight, low reps and compromise with little rest between sets.
So her was the workout I did today:
A1 push press-175 20 reps total
A2 pull ups- body weight 20 reps
A3 squats- 265 20 reps
A4 incline DB press- 90 25 reps

Then a dynamic interrupt: Burpees for 60secs
                                       mountain climbers for 60 sec
                                       rest 2 min then on to the next circuit
B1 rack deadlifts 315 20 reps
B2 1 arm rows 110 db's 25 reps
B3 bulgarian split squat 50lbs 25 reps
B4 clean high pulls 135 25 reps

Now the reps are total for that exercise. So I would do 3-5 reps and how ever many sets until I completed the prescribed number of reps. This workout was tough!!! I am only going to do this once a week for now then maybe kick it up to 2 or 3 different types of fat loss strength circuits until Memorial Day.

Tomorrow I will be doing heavy chest/rear delts/ rhomboids and shoulders. This will be way more fun and more my style of training.

Update on : Project destroy Korean

Since my last post I have finished my German Volume training and have moved onto a program I designed. I also have not done any ice bath recently do to a sore throat and cough I have had, and didn't think messin with my body temp would be a good idea. I did one fast and that went well and I am doing my second one after a disastrous 2 days of shitty eating. Mostly the shitty eating stems from poor planning. I come to school and don't have time to eat and when I do I opt for some crap at the mall, and valentine's day dinner. Now my buddy who I have this little competition with is a very strong willed Korean and while he could probably eat anything he wants, he doesn't. This kind pisses me off but it is not going to stop me from trying wreck his diet. I will be getting him a case of Samoa Girl Scout cookies very soon. Now that I am getting my diet tighten up and I am feeling better I will resume my ice baths and cold showers this week.

Now for my workout. I am not adding in any cardio activity until next month and even then it won't be me running a bunch of muscle burning miles, it will be some morning fasted walks or bike rides. Here is what my lifting program is for the coming weeks:
Sunday: Max effort Squat or dead lift
Monday: Eccentric-less sled work/ neural activation workouts
Tuesday: Horizontal pressing
Wednesday: same as Monday or off or biceps
Thursday: Dynamic effort squat or dead lift
Friday: Vertical pressing
Saturday: Back and biceps and basketball

Sunday:
Dead lift warmed up to single reps of 375, 405 and missed rep of 425 (all with mini bands on bar adding 55-85 lbs to bar weight)
Belt squats 3 x 25 reps with 135
Back extensions 3 x 12-15

Monday: off
Tuesday:
A1)Incline press reps of 531531- 240,250, 260,250,260,275(^)
A2) trap 3 raises 6x 8 with 10lbs
B1)1/2 rack flat bench 54321- 275,295,315,325,330
B2) db ext rotation 4x8-10 20lbs
explosive push ups
dips
floor flies- All done in a circuit with 1 min rest after third exercise
D1) seated military press 3 sets of 8 with 65lbs

Wednesday: eccentric-less sled for upper body

The Plan

So here is the goal for the throw down 215 and 10% body fat. Now this is what I think it will take to win this competition. This will result in about 3.5 lbs of muscle gained and about 7 lbs lost from fat. I have isolated three thing I must do to reach this goal in ten weeks( which is about 1/2 a % per week). The three things I need to do are: 1) control my cortisol level 2) drop only body fat 3) gain as much lean body mass as possible.

1) My cortisol levels are I high and I have no idea why. This is the stress hormone and anyone who knows me, knows I have very little stress and get stressed about very little. You may ask how I know my cortisol is high, the reading around my belly button during the body fat test is the site if high is correlated with cortisol. So I have done some research and these are some things I need to get that number down. Sleep, good quality sleep. Now this may be the hardest with a pregnant wife who is constantly trying to get comfortable and a 2 year old who wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night. The second thing is caffeine, now I hate and don't drink coffee, but I am however addicted to diet Pepsi. So that is going to have to be limited to 2-3 a week. The third thing I will do is take a supplement called Phosphatidyl Serine. This helps lower cortisol levels.

2) This will be done mainly through my diet. I am going to use a 4:1 low carb to carb days. I am also going to use a fasting day right before the carb up day. This will allow me to continue to lose fat and help add muscle. I am also going to use high doses of Branch chain amino acids, which will aid in recovery and adding muscle.

3) Gaining as much muscle as possible as fast as possible is the goal of every meat head. Well I have been reading some interesting new thoughts on adding eccentric- less training to traditional weight lifting. This will utilize dragging and pushing a weighted sled. The idea is to increase the volume and amount the muscle get worked, but without damaging the muscle with the eccentric portion of the movements. Doing this a couple of times a week on top of the traditional routine I will be doing in the gym.

Here are the circumference measurements:

chest -44.75
shoulders- 50.25
waist- 38
thigh- 25.25
arms- 17

A Throw down has been issued!!!

In the words of Bobby Flay "Are you ready for a throw down." So I have a buddy who like me is a bit of a meathead, and like me needs to find new ways to challenge and keep himself motivated. So after a post of mine the other day he made a comment and challenged me to see who could make the most improvements. This kind of thing is what meat heads do to see who has bigger balls, without having to actually check. So we took some measurements and set a date 10 weeks out for this comp. Now my shorter, slightly less attractive friend is in better shape then me, but I have some size on him so this should be interesting.There is also a point system and the winner gets a free meal at Outback. There will be one point for a positive result, -1 for a negative and 0 points for no change. Most points win. You can follow Adam's progress at http://bodybypaik.blogspot.com So here are some numbers:

Me: body fat- 14.46%
       weight- 222.5 lbs
       lean body mass- 190 lbs
       fat mass - 32 lbs

Adam: body fat - 7.92
           weight - 178
           lbm - 163
           fm - 15
We also took some circumference measurements that I don't have right now and will post these when I get them. Below are some pics from day one of this throw down. (caution: may cause upset stomach)

GAME ON!!!!!

Extreme getting EXTREMER!!

So after about 5 weeks I am adding on to this experiment. I have been happy with the results so far but some of my workouts have suffered later in the week. The really low carbs have helped me lose 10 lbs, and probably gained about 3-5 lbs of muscle. I think this is pretty good, but I want more faster! So I am going to add a form of Intermittent Fasting(IF).

IF has been around for years. Basically some will argue that as our ancient ancestors roamed the earth, they didn't always have food to eat. It could have been because they didn't feel like hunting that day, or the Mammoth just got the best of them that day, either way they had to use everything fast or it would go bad ( not much refrigeration). So all this comes back to the fact that current man eats to much or could use a break once in a while from all the eating. So while I won't stop eating completely, I am going t take a break once a week. I am going to use a specially designed fast absorbing protein drink the day of the fast. I am also going to continue doing the ice baths, and cold showers.

As for my workout, I have one more week of my old program then I will be switching it up a bit. I have been getting a lot stronger so I am going to keep the workout principles close to the same. The only cardio session will be my basketball Saturdays. I can't do anything cardio without a ball involved right now. As the summer gets closer and I have to wear less clothes, then I may be adding in some form of cardio, but I will see how this works first. 

Food Porn

So I have finally figured out how to get my pics from my phone onto the blog. Now everyone can see the food I ate on Saturday. Notice how big the brownie bar is, and that is 1/2 a bar. I didn't get all the food but you'll get the point. There is also a pic of the pills I take to help control the insulin spike and crash. I take those before three of the biggest meals. Also if you have any suggestions for foods to eat this Saturday, comment on my Facebook page.

Yesterdays workout:
incline bench 10set x 5 reps @240 ( i missed 1 rep on 7, 9,10)

Cheat day and Monday result

So over the weekend it was my cheat day. I have stated how much I look forward to these days. So much so that I actually wake up early to get my workout and first meal out of the way. So I got up Saturday morning did my back and bicep workout and went and bought some supplies at the Dutch Market. This place is a cheaters heaven. Pies, cakes, candy, cookies, breads and pretzels. It is amazing to walk in this place and have free reign to eat what ever you want. So I bought some pancake mix, maple syrup and a brownie bar. I went home took a protein shake and my pills then started cooking. So here is what my day looked like:

8- workout
930- protein shake
1030- pancake and eggs
130-330- Basketball
330- Double cheese burger and large fries
430- brownie bar
730- pizza
900- chik-fil-a chocolate milkshake
930- Watched "The Fighter" while eating junior mints and twizzlers

The only thing that sucked was our waiter forgot to put my order of mozzarella sticks and calamari in, Whit had to convince me not to beat him up, so I calmed down and got over the calamari I was dreaming about since Thursday.


The Results
I was a little disappointed last week because I didn't drop any weight. On Saturday morning I weighed the same as I did last Saturday, but I know there is more to this process then the numbers on the scale. Plus Monday's are the official weigh/measurement day. So this morning I woke up and got on the scale and took out the tape measure:

January 24, 2011

Weight- 222.5 (-6lbs)

Belly button- 38 ½(-1 1/4 in)

Hips- 38 (-1/2 in)

Chest- 46(+1 1/4)

Arm- 17(same)

Quad- 26(+1 in)

Neck- 16 ¼(+1/4 in)

I was a bit upset when I stepped on the scale but once I did the measurements I was very happy. The lost inches in the belly button and hips represent lost body fat, but the best news was that my chest and quads got bigger. These measurements mean that while I have lost some fat I have also gained some decent muscle at the same time. This should be the goal anyone strives for. Lose fat and gain some muscle! I am pretty excited about the results so far but this week I am going to change some things up to see if I can speed the fat loss process up a bit.

The last week and a half I got a bit lazy and didn't take the showers or do the ice packs at night, I just did 3 ice baths( although all of them lasted 5-10 min longer then original plan). So this week I am going to do the cold showers in the morning(sucks!) and the ice packs at night on the nights I don't take the ice baths. I am also adding back in the ice water before breakfast. I only have 3 more weeks for this experiment. 

Some people have asked me my goal is and truthfully I don't have an exact goal in mind. I say get to 210 or 10% body fat. But there are a couple of problems with those goals 1) I may not get to 210 if I keep adding muscle like I am (I am fine with that) 2) I never took my body fat since I didn't really have anyone that could. I would estimate that my bf was at 17% and is now about 13% but those are rough estimates. So I guess the real goal is to see if I could see all rows of my abs in this 6 week experiment ( i can see about 1 1/2 rows now if I squint and the light is right-jk). So the only thing I would really love to see is my belly button measurement get down to 37 inches. That may be a tall order but it would be cool.