Pretty Fast (P1C1WB1)

Yeah, I settled on the silly notation.

I spent most of the day extremely pissed off because I was without a ride to the gym. Typically, when my mom goes to work, I go with because my gym is literally across the street from where she works. I had taken my now-typical preworkout power nap… and she left without me. It wasn’t a matter of fatigue, though. While I did sleep two hours past when I was supposed to be awake, I was ready to workout when I laid down. There was certainly no lack of motivation… just a lack of communication.

Anyway, she made up for it (kinda) by taking me to the gym an hour and a half before close.

This meant two things:

1. I hadn’t eaten since roughly 7AM by the time I got to the gym. I don’t know how long I have to go without eating to become fasted (makes me want to re-read Eat Stop Eat, though) but it’s been at least 12 hours since my last meal. (Had I been there on time, this meal would have been just about three hours prior to workout.)
2. I didn’t get to enjoy gratuitous amounts of rest between sets. In this whole workout, I essentially skipped rest for warm-ups (taking only time to change the weight or catch my breath) and only took a full 5 minutes of rest in preparation for deadlifts. I lingered a bit on the last warm-up and work set of pulldowns, just because I wasn’t in any danger of missing a lift due to closure. (Just gimme one more set, bro!) That also turned out to be, as expected, the hardest lift, and the only one I didn’t meet my rep goal for.

Workout B1 for Friday, May 27, 2010

Romanian Deadlift

1. 60lbs x 5
2. 90 x 3
3. 120 x 2

Deadlift (overhand grip)

1. 150lbs x 3
2. 150 x 3 (If one thing made me happy this workout, it was this.)

This exercise took me 33 minutes (remember that I use RDL as warm-up for DL.)

Lateral Raise Machine

1. 35lbs x 5
2. 50 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 85 x 6 (Had to really grit my teeth and push for the last couple reps.)

This exercise took 8 minutes.

Leg Curl

1. 25lbs. x 5
2. 40 x 3
3. 50 x 2
4. 65 x 10

8 minutes again.

Leg Extension

1. 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2
4. 75 x 10

10 minutes.

Pulldown

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 65 x 3
3. 85 x 2
4. 110 x 7 (FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)

Missed a rep. 16 minutes for this exercise. I zoned out before the third set. Wasn’t TIRED, just had trouble SEEING THINGS.

Nevertheless, I’m going to increase all lifts for next B1. I had no reason to miss that 8th rep and I was very close, but very close doesn’t count.

Workout Time: 75 minutes (budgeted for 90, so I was happy with this)

Body Weight: 164.5lbs
Body Fat Percentage: Didn’t have time.

Condition: B-. Smoldering, smoldering rage.

Timing of Stuff
7AM – Last meal. PB&J sammich (and a peanut butter one on one slice), some organic corn chips and salsa.
12:40PM – EC1
5:20PM – EC2
7:50PM – EC3
8:27PM – Workout
10:30PM – 2 scoops EAS Premium Protein (in water)
11:45PM – 2 scoops EAS Premium Protein (in water)

I just really do not feel like stuffing myself full of carbs… yet.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Thanksgoal

I’m setting a goal for Thanksgiving.

I was mulling over my dieting strategy throughout my fast today, trying to decide at what point in my strength-gain quest I should chase after fat loss once again. It got annoyingly abstract as I do not really know what to expect as far as strength gains. I said, initially, that when I could do eight bodyweight chin-ups, then I would be strong enough to consider strength-retention a worthwhile effort while dieting. I’m not that strong now, why bother maintaining strength if I can regain what I’ve got in four weeks anyway?

So I stopped for a moment and decided to look at the “after this, then that” part, then-that-being fat loss. It was my decision that I would initiate the resumption of the fat loss goal by introducing a slight, 10% deficit, while building my present lifts not to a greater weight, but simply to the ceiling of the rep range (or maybe one more) of the present weight. If I lost strength on lifts much to the point of hitting the floor of the range or necessitating less weight used, I’d do a refeed and hope I wouldn’t miss a lift on the next workout in the cycle. Two missed lifts would immediately result in a diet break (it’s possible to lose reps for lack of focus, which is common for me on a deficit, so I would allow myself a small margin for this type of error.)

I determined that I’d pick a key lift for each workout (except B2) to monitor, just to keep sane. Less than 2 x 6 on Bench for A1, less than 2 x 3 on Deadlift for B1, and Chins (I presently cannot even do any, and I was planning to build up to at least eight before cutting, but the floor would be 1 x 6.)

But then I looked at how much weight I have to lose right now.

My body weight ceiling is 170lbs. At last check I was 169 (165.5lbs after sauna) and that’s dangerously close to where I don’t want to be. I could foresee a lot of “mini-fix” weeks to drop a pound in the likely event of lean gains. That’s a lot of back-and-forth and, ultimately, probably good for composition-revision purposes… but not that predictable and thusly not that interesting to me.

So I decided to look at how much I have to lose. It will have to be revised somewhat on Monday, as today (Friday) I’m fasting, and the weekend will be decidedly low-carb and may result in below-maintenance eating as well. Will I lose fat? Probably not. But I’m going to try and get as dry a weight measure post-workout (that means sauna) to truly understand where I’m starting from. However, I’m in a fast-induced-frenzy of productivity and so I’m planning it out with what I’ve got.

May 18th: 169lbs. @ 17%; 28.73lbs. fat, 140.27lbs. lean.

I decided on phase-length of dieting on two points: the fact that I don’t trust myself to last through six weeks of dieting as I get leaner, and Independence Day overlap. Fireworks Day isn’t a huge holiday in casual-binge world, but it is a day that I’d be comfortable feasting on if the opportunity arises. I’d rather not risk a nervous breakdown weighing risk vs. reward and just eat some goddamn barbecue.

Phases are thusly: four weeks of dieting, two weeks of eating at (new) maintenance. With 26 weeks to play with (May 24 – November 24) I am going to shoot for 14lbs. of fat loss. While this initially sounds like 14lbs. / 26 weeks (and so about a half a pound a week), it is important to note that there are only 18 weeks of specific dieting. That brings me to about 0.78lbs. per week of dieting, not accounting for any kickass magical losses during my diet breaks.

Lifting goals will slow, of course. I’m going to remain with my benchmark idea stated earlier, in that I won’t worry so much if I CANNOT INCREASE weight, but I will be concerned if I lose reps.

A1 Bench Press: 2 x 6 @ 80lbs.
B1 Deadlift: 2 x 3 @ 135lbs.
Any workout except B2, Pulldown: 1 x 6 @ 105lbs.

However, that being the GOAL isn’t going to be my marker for diet FAILURE. For me there are three levels: GREAT SUCCESS (getting or surpassing what I want), SUCCESS (doing well), and FAIL (fucking up.)

GREAT SUCCESS, as I’ve just delineated, will be 14+lbs. of fat loss with no strength loss.

SUCCESS, however, is a bit less. Striking a balance between losing weight and not feeling like a subhuman puddle usually means about a half a pound of weight loss per week. Therefore, success will be set at a minimum of 9lbs. of fat loss. Strength loss on bench is acceptable, but not on anything else.

FAIL is anything less than that and/or becoming an even weaker pathetic bitch. Or gaining fat, which I guess is EPIC FAIL, but I don’t really consider my options for failure in great detail anyhow. I prefer spending my time on success.

According to that, my end stats should look something like:

GREAT SUCCESS: 155lbs. @ 9.5% fat

SUCCESS: 160lbs. @ 12.3% fat

FAIL: gross.

I’ll express my specific dieting APPROACH in another post. This is just to outline the goal and time frame.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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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Beat of the Rhythym of the Night

Not a great workout, but I’m not too ashamed of it.

My carb-up last night didn’t go great. It did the job, I guess, but there was way too much fructose/sucrose going on. I should have just made some pasta but I just wanted to eat and go to bed. It was a stressful fast. It’s working great for getting my numbers back up but I don’t know if I want to keep periodizing my eating in this way if I can’t be sure I’ll have the food sources I’ll need to make it work.

Especially since my protein powder is running low.

Numbers:

Body Weight: 159lbs.

Flat Bench:

1. 1×1 @ 100lbs. (failed halfway through second rep and barely made it to the low pins)
2. 1×4 @ 90lbs. (aw.)

This is the first workout this year that I didn’t get a text message. Holy crap I can start wearing a watch.

Incline Bench:

1. 1×5 @ 75lbs.
2. 1×5 @ 60lbs.

Looks like both of my sets on incline bench are going up next workout. They’re going to catch up to my flat bench quick if this keeps up.

Incline Flys

1. 1×5 @ 20lbs.
2. 1×4 @ 20lbs.
3. 1×5 @ 20lbs.

Not sure what to make of this. First set came easy, second set felt like my eyes were going to fall out, and the third set was a “just right” challenge. I don’t know if I want to wait until all three sets come easy or if this was just a mental thing and I should just bump it up another five pounds.

—

Made a pretty nice friend though. Lynn saw me screw myself on the second rep of the top set of flat benching and offered to spot me on my next one. I declined (making me sort-of wish I did more sets at a weight I wasn’t sure I could handle), but I really appreciated the offer. Turns out she went to my old Bally’s, only before I was born, haha! She was really fit though, turned out she used to be an aerobics (spin?) instructor. She was working back/bi’s in no particular fashion, unless she can keep meticulous records in her head.

I think I’m going to try dumbbells next workout though. I’m not feeling any activation in my chest on flat benches, it’s all arms it feels like. Which is probably why I’m stalling, the weak suckas! They’re also looking a lot better than my chest, in no small part to their relatively lower fattiness. I used to hate dieting down because of how small I’d feel in my arms and calves. When I first started training with dad, forearms and calves got beaten like crazy. Dad had me training them and abs every workout.

Now I’m doing two work sets per exercise and I’m smaller than I’ve ever been since I started weight training.

I should just have him train me again, what am I screwing around by myself for? :P

(Just kidding.)

Popularity: 3% [?]

That’s Intense, Bro

Popularity: 39% [?]

Raisin Bran Bench

I ate so much Raisin Bran and other carby shit yesterday that I completely negated the fast I did on Wednesday. I’m really pissed with myself. I let boredom and nerves get to me, control me, and overfeed me considerably. Today’s fast it to 5AM Saturday. I wanted to fast throughout Saturday since I’m not really there, mentally, to soldier through another day of no food so early on.

But it’s the last day of the week, so whatever. Doing it.

Here is yesterday’s workout:

Bench Press

1. 100lbs. x 2 (my right middle finger was infected when I worked out, I think my lack of right hand grip and just losing focus cost me the third rep)
2. 90lbs. x 3
3. 80lbs. x 4

Incline Bench

1. 65lbs. x 8
2. 55lbs. x 9
3. 45lbs. x 10 (how fortunate I am that my bottom set is the empty bar, haha!)

I had a much more difficult time with these sets than I was anticipating.

Incline Fly, 3 x 5 @ 15lbs.

Cardio: 30 minutes of 90s walk / 30s jog on the treadmill. 2 and 4 mph, respectively.

I really didn’t feel like doing cardio, but I was already in the gym, already sweaty, and figured I less didn’t-want-to-do-it-now that I would…n’t… want to… in the future. “Do it now so less need be done at a later date,” I felt.

I’m going lay out my workout for next week so I’m not in a rush to figure it out before I leave the house in the morning.

Bench Press

1. 100lbs. x 3-5
2. 90lbs. x +1 previous set
3. 80lbs. x +1 previous set

Incline Bench

1. 70lbs. x 5-8
2. 60lbs. x +1 previous set
3. 55lbs. x +1 previous set

Incline Fly

3 x 5 @ 20lbs. dumbbells

Gym Radio Tracks I enjoyed: “Hip to be Square” (Huey Lewis and the News); “Working My Way Back to You” (The Spinners); “The One I Love” (R.E.M.); “Just Can’t Get Enough” (The Saturdays)

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