Almost-Fast Training

I have restructured my eating habits once again after an irritating set of circumstances led me to a wasted refeed.

Thursday I refed, Friday I missed my workout, Saturday I fasted, Sunday I worked out and refed again.

Refeeding before a workout has been my intention as I am always strongest the day after a refeed. Furthermore, since I spend most of the day not eating following a workout while I wait to be picked up, I just integrate that as the beginning of my fast. However, this has not proven to be the most flexible way of working things. If I miss a workout, I wind up in caloric excess, as I’ll wind up redoing the refeed. I could just pay better attention (thus solving a variety of problems at once) but I’m trying to condition responses so that I can automate/habitualize this nonsense so I don’t have to think about what I’m doing as often.

I think I’m just going to cut out refeeds from my plan, they are too much of a hassle.

I’ll just re-evaluate my maintenance needs and configure them so that they are more satisfying, and be more vigilant with my dedicated fasting days.

Workout for Sunday, February 7th, 2010

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I Am The Master of My Fate

Saw Invictus last night; been feeling pretty motivated overall.

Not that it helped the fact that I lost some muscle over the holidays. Evening workout on the wrong day didn’t really help matters, either.

And I was called back for an interview with p.i.n.k tomorrow. Go figure right?

Onto the numbers:

Weight: 156lbs.
BF%: 18.8%

No excuses today. Just going to take it for what it is. I’ve got roughly six pounds of fat I want to lose before the easy part of the diet is over.

Flat Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 50lbs. x 5
3. 70lbs. x 3
4. 100lbs. x 1
5. 95lbs. x 3
6. 100lbs. x 1

I had to sneeze; still didn’t get my reps though.

Incline Bench

1. 85lbs. x 4 (seat was too high, did the set anyway)
2. 75lbs. x 5 (three holes = good)

Skipped incline fly today. Had some upper-depletion work I wanted to get in, and I wasn’t budging the 25 DBs tonight.

Round 1

1. Row: 10 & 2 @ 55lbs., 15 @ 40lbs.
2. DB Curl: 2 x 15 @ 5lbs.
3. Cable Extension: 15 & 11 @ 7.5lbs.
4. Lateral Raise: 3 x 15 @ 5lbs.
5. Crunch Machine: 3 x 15 @ 40lbs.

Round 2

1. Row: 3 x15 @ 40lbs.
2. Crunch Machine: 1 x 15 @ 40lbs.

Cut short because mom was picking me up; she was visiting my cousin who had flown in from Cali to celebrate the holidays. I’ll see her this summer. Can’t be missing workouts!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

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You Gotta Jack-in With Your Ponytail

I haven't pooped in like three days :(

I’m going to jump right into the numbers and ramble afterward:

Deadlift

1. 80lbs x 5
2. 80lbs x 5
3. 120lbs x 3
4. 170lbs x 2
5. 205lbs x 3 (left under)
6. 185lbs x 2 (left over)

I “left one in the tank” on both work sets. I’m now recording my warm-ups, so the last two sets are what I would normally be reporting.

The last set felt weird besides, though. Just got a bad feeling about it, and I went with it.

Lat Pulldown

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45lbs x 5
3. 55lbs x 5
4. 70lbs x 3
5. 85lbs x 2
6. 100lbs x 4 (one less than I would have liked, but it’s progress)
7. 90lbs x 5 (the best set of this session)

On set 6 I attempted a fifth rep but got stuck. I held it and did a slow negative. Again, last two sets are the work sets.

The next two exercises don’t have specific warm-ups.

Horizontal Row
3 x 5 @ 80lbs.

I forgot to stretch my shoulders before the first set, but I cranked out all five reps besides. Then I stretched and did the second set, cranked out another five.

Then I remembered I’m supposed to explode concentrically, and the third set was a breeze. I will probably stay this weight, though. I don’t like how involved my arms got, and I don’t think my lats were truly handling this weight.

Nautilus Abs
3 x 5 @ 65lbs.

I don’t think I’m going to work abs both days anymore. It’s making me lurch forward. Just deadlift days is fine. Nevertheless, this was waaay too easy. The next plate jump puts me at 80lbs, and I did a single rep of that just out of curiosity.

I’ll be doing 80lbs. next week.

I decided to ditch my show prep. I highly doubt they’re going to select me, and it’s not worth having such a thrown diet. It was useful prep for the Christmas events, since I evened out just a touch above maintenance rather than thousands over, for the week.

Physiologically I was primed for this workout, but mentally trashed. Went to see Avatar with some friends, then wound up chatting until six in the morning (NOT about Avatar. That conversation ended ten minutes after it started:

“Would you want to do the Avatar program if you could?”
“No.”
“Seriously? Why not?”
“I already know what it’s like to have proportionally puny lats. I don’t like it.”)

The only miss as far as how my body felt, though, was this ridiculous level of constipation I’ve been dealing with. All this food is pushing my belly out in a rather discouraging way. I tried to pay attention to my shoulders in the gym mirrors, ugh.

And despite the bloaty chunkiness, I’m still 160lbs. So uh. I lost weight. Yeah. I just don’t know how much.

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DOMS Day

I had a pretty long workout yesterday. I was tired when I got home, and though I stayed up rather late I wanted to enjoy some non-DOMS time. I knew as soon as I woke up I’d be sore and ache all over. I am.

From a pure-strength perspective, yesterday’s workout was a little… meh. I still had a belly full of Christmas foods, and I think this compromised my benching form. When I activated my pecs I think it interacted unfavorably with this food, and I subconsciously began benching with my arms. It wasn’t until my second set of incline benches (incline bench is always where I really start to feel my chest anyway) that I realized my elbows were tucking in. I dropped the weight and did a third set and deliberately jutted my elbows out. I felt like an idiot for not having caught this sooner.

Wasted session.

After the strength maintenance work I went about the depletion routine. I’ve been eating a lot of carbs in the latter half of the week (though surprisingly few at the beginning of, which nearly balances me calorically.) I either wanted to burn the sugar already saturating my muscles, or I hoped that if I hadn’t fully digested all of that food yet that I could get some tardy partitioning on my side.

Onto the numbers:

Body Weight: 159lbs
Body Fat%: 18.6% (fully loaded; still made me a little grouchy with myself.)

Flat Bench

1. 45lbs. x  5
2. 60lbs. x 4
3. 80lbs. x 2 (machine) ~ end of warm-up
4. 100lbs. x 3 (machine)
5. 95lbs. x 1

I moved to the machine because the first two warm-ups seemed unusually difficult. I attribute this to lack of adequate rest between warm-ups which I ordinarily afford myself. Lack of patience lead to lack of reps, though I did hit my goal of three reps on the top set. My elbows always do what they’re supposed to on the machines but I had two major problems which led me back to the bar for the final set: hand spacing is horrendous/hurts my wrists; nasty sweaty prick stole the machine while I was getting a drink of water.

He was really gross. He didn’t offer to let me work in or anything, and I probably would have barfed on him if he had. Ugh. He came over while I was using it, asked me how long I had on it (“about three more sets, I just got here”) and after one set I put my workout log on the seat and went to the nearest water fountain to sip some water. Come back, he’s dripping all over the seat. Notebook’s on the floor. I grab my book, snicker at his calves, and go back to the floor.

Incline Bench

1. 85lbs. x 4
2. 70lbs. x 5
3. 65lbs. x 5

The top set I arguably shortchanged myself on. I don’t know where the failure was coming from, arms or chest (I didn’t know under stress of the bar, I didn’t think about it on the spot while I was writing in the log, and I can’t remember besides) but I could have probably screamed out a fifth rep on the top set. I had a lot more working out to do, and my goal was 4 reps for today, so I just left it to that.

Second set, as I said, was the “oh shit I’ve been doing it wrong” set, verified by the light final set I used solely to check form. I’m a doofus.

Incline Fly

25lbs. x 4, 4, 2

Nothing changed from last week.

I didn’t have my glasses on, so I got to play “who’s that look like?“:

• Had Alton Brown doing strict curls and rear lateral raises
• Pee-Wee Power Curls (with calf raise)
• My ex standing above my head (if you look at the mirror from the bench I was on) doing whatever she was doing. She had cool yellow short shorts, though, so I knew it wasn’t actually the ex. Still couldn’t look at her directly though. MIRRORS ONLY, COWARD!

Nautilus Abs

3 x 5 @ 60lbs.

I checked the other machine, it’s a “Life Fitness” brand ab worker. I love my gym. It has abs, biceps, and triceps in its own “wing” of the gym, near the pool, squash, and basketball courts. It’s also the closest section of machines (though to be fair it has benches with the vertical handles so you can do reverse crunches, and a mat with medicine balls) to the locker rooms. Presumably so you can pump up your abs/guns and run to the mirrors/pool as quickly as possible.

Speaking of, still playing the celebrity lookalike game: Alec Baldwin was doing some combination of limited ROM shoulder press + tricep extension with a cable machine, further down the line than the Life Fitness ab destructinator.

Oh, and I finally heard that “Poker Face” song while I was working abs. I was not amused. But, abs were the only thing I progressed on for-reals this session. So whatever.

RELATIVELY HIGH VOLUME TIME, GOOO~!

Round One

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 13 @ 10lbs; 2 x 15 @ 5lbs.
3. Squats: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
4. Standing Calf Raise Machine: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.
5. Dumbbell Curl: 2 x 15 @ 8lbs. (Pee Wee came by and did his power curls to show me how to lift 65lbs. Thanks bro. This weight was perfect for me, though.)
6. Cable Tricep Pushdowns (w/rope): 2 x 15 @ 30lbs. (Could have done 35, but probably not 40lbs., but the station didn’t have 5lbs. jumps.)

7 minute rest. Each numbered item was done straight through, so all the rows and then all the raises, and then all the squats, etc. 30-60 seconds between sets, no more than 2 minutes between exercises.

Round Two

1. Horizontal Row: 3 x 15 @ 45lbs.
2. Squats: 2 x 15 @ 45lbs.
3. Calf Raise: 3 x 15 @ 30lbs.

My shoulders are fried. I was starting to feel mighty nauseous before my second set of squats this round, and on the ninth rep vertigo hit me. I completed the set but decided not to risk a final one.

Overall, it was a good workout. Took me a total of about three hours to complete. Went to Barnes & Noble afterward and read some comics for a few hours. My arms were all pumped, and it turns out I have traps. I got some interesting looks when I took my coat off. Should have worn a bigger shirt.

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p.i.n.k Training

So I got a call a few days ago informing me of a fitting the first week of January for a fashion show in Milwaukee on the 9th.

So that means low-carb dieting for the next two weeks, and no enjoyment of Christmas meals whatsoever! Yay!

I was going to do some depletion work today, but since I only had 2 hours to workout, I essentially only had time for my usual routine. My weight is the same, but my body fat percentage mysteriously went down. I’m calling a fluke, since I’ve only started low-carbing TODAY. Yesterday I had nearly 300g.

Numbers time.

Post-workout and post-post-workout meal. I didn't even bother posing correctly.

Weight: 160lbs.
BF%: 16.2% (I check it three times…)

Deadlift

1. 200lbs. x 5 (LO)
2. 180lbs. x 5 (LU)

Fuck yes. That is all.

Lat Pulldown

1. 50lbs. x 5
2. 75lbs. x 5
3. 100lbs. x 3
4. 85lbs. x 5

I don’t feel like I activate my lats properly when I’m chinning, so I’m doing underhanded pulldowns. I’m definitely feeling my lats right now.

I didn’t load properly, though. I put the same amount as I would have offset on the chin assist, so for that reason what you’re ACTUALLY seeing is my warm-up lifts. I would be lifting 100lbs. (offset would thus be 60lbs.) on my third and final warm-up set. I knew this was going to be a lot harder than usual when I completed my first warm-up. I should have listened to myself, but part of me was thinking I was just coming off my high from making my reps in deadlift 45 seconds ago, so I carried on. (I also activated more of my mid-back on DL than I was anticipating. This scared me because I didn’t realize what was happening when I did it and it sounded like a couple ribs popped. But no pain, no injury.)

When my third warm-up set was as difficult as it was, I stopped it there, and called that my effective top-set for this workout. I moved a plate lower for a conservative deload, and got my reps there. Next workout I will see if a full rest before the 100lbs. combined with adaptations will allow me to get my reps. I’m not holding my breath though, I’ll likely be pretty depleted by the time that workout rolls around.

Horizontal Row

1. 80lbs. x 5
2. 80lbs. x 4
3. 80lbs. x 4

First set, again, felt like I wasn’t as strong as I should have been, but again I made the excuse that my previous exercise impacted me too much. This time, a little bit more of a legitimate excuse. My lats were genuinely exhausted for a change, and like I said, DL hit my mid-back for once. However, I was feeling some tightness in my shoulder, so during my rest before my second set I sauntered over to the dumbbell area and grabbed the broomstick to do some shoulder dislocations and watched the aerobics class.

Second set went much better, despite not getting all the reps. Technique felt cleaner.

Third set, no complaints, I failed on my fifth-rep attempt and slownegged it back.

Cable Crunch Nautilus Ab Thingy

3 sets of 5 @ 55lbs.

I gotta say, as far as goofy-lookin’ ab machines go, Nautilus felt like I was getting a decent range of motion on them. I don’t remember the brand-name of the one next to it, but I’d used it before, and it felt like such a stunted “I’m hurling now” jerky motion that I didn’t mind trying something new.

The reason I didn’t do cable crunches? Triceps aren’t strong enough to push down 55lbs. apparently. Oh well.

Chatted with Andy a bit following this, he seemed interested in my dieting history and the genesis of my intense interest in fitness and why I don’t already have the results I’m clearly so motivated to achieve. I felt they were honest and worthwhile questions to answer, so I did. Might write a post about it, but I’ll save it for when I’ve achieved. No sense in writing another “but this time it’s different!” until I AM different.

Plus I need to find all my fat kid pictures.

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