Sick Lifts

Been sick since Thursday of last week; was really surprised to get all my lifts yesterday. I’m starting a new notebook today though (old one is getting unwieldy, and I want to tool around in sci-fi land rather than fantasy and would rather not get my streams crossed.)

Here’s Wednesday:

Another Workout – 4/13/11

START: 10AM
Body Weight: 161.5lbs.

Deadlift

1. 135lbs. x 3 (double-overhand)
2. 195 x 2 (d-o)
3. 230 x 2 (third rep failed at half; left hand under, straps)
4. 205 x 2 (left hand over, felt form weakening so didn’t go for a third rep)

I was incredibly surprised on the top set here just flying up at me.

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45 x 5
3. 50 x 5
4. 70 x 3
5. 90 x 2
6. 105 x 4
7. 95 x 6
8. 85 x 7
9. 75 x 8

This required a lot more “GRAHH!” on the last rep of everything, but it felt good to hit the top of the rep range on all the sets.

Chin Assist

1. 33lbs. x 5
2. 33 x 5
3. 53 x 5
4. 73 x 3
5. 93 x 2
6. 113 x 5
7. 83 x 5

The thing I like about pulldowns is that the weight being lifted is a little easier to negotiate. I had the workout prescribed at 125lbs. for the top set and I somehow managed to mess up the math between sets. Oh well.

STOP: 12:33PM
BW: 164.5lbs.

I didn’t really eat anywhere near enough post-workout, as I still was feeling pretty appetite-less from illness. I had a giant smoothie and went to bed immediately when I got home.

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REFEED ME (P3C4T1)

My computer has been down for a while.

As such, I’ve totally blanked on all the flavor text I was going to post with this workout.

Tension Workout for Thursday, July 8, 2010

Superset: Leg Extension / Leg Curl

1. 30lbs x 5 / 25lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3 / 40 x 3
3. 60 x 2 / 55 x 2
4. 75 x 6 / 65 x 6
5. 70 x 7 / 60 x 7
6. 65 x 8 / 55 x 8
7. 60 x 9 / 50 x 9

Pretty straightforward superset. Throughout the workout I’d usually rest a minute, so that it would be two minutes of rest for the same exercise (Extension, rest a minute, Curl, rest a minute, Extension, etc.)

Superset: Chest Press Machine / Cable Row

1. 30lbs x 5 / 30lbs x 5
2. 45 x 3 / 45 x 3
3. 60 x 2 / 60 x 2
4. 75 x 6 / 75 x 7
5. 70 x 7 / 75 x 8

The cable row was in 15lbs. jumps so I just… didn’t do a drop set there. I should really look up better form on them as well. This was the first time in a LONG time… I fucking HATE rowing.

Superset: Incline Press Machine / Pulldowns

1. 45lbs x 2 / 50 x 3
2. 60 x 12 / 65 x 2
3. 60 x 6 / 85 x 8
4. NA / 70 x 11

Superset: Calf Raises / Lateral Raises

1. 15lbs x 5 / NA
2. 30 x 3 / NA
3. 45 x 2 / 40 x 3
4. 60 x 6 / 55 x 2
5. 60 x 7 / 65 x 6
6. 60 x 8 / 55 x 8
7. 60 x 9 / 45 x 10

I started the Lateral Raises a little later because my calves recover quickly and because I wanted to end the superset together rather than trailing off with increasing reps on calf raises…

I do a lot of thinking while I’m sitting in the Lateral Raise machine. I decided that if Depletion workouts are going to be against the clock (rather than increasing the weights on them), and the Power workouts are going to be the opposite of that (increasing the weights regardless of how long it takes me), what do I do to mark progress on the Tension workouts?

I’m just going to try to get 12 reps on every movement (the rep range is supposed to be 6-12.) I’m not going to be doing this workout plan for very long, but 12 is where I’m going to go “okay, time to increase the weight a little bit here.”

Training to failure isn’t the point of this workout anyway, it doesn’t NEED to be HEAVY, it just should be challenging.

Superset: Dumbbell Curl / Pushdown

1. 10lbs x 10 / 32.5 x 12
2. 10 x 12 / 32.5 x 12

So, for example, I’m going to bump both of those on my next tension workout and just try for about six reps.

Weight: 160.5lbs
BF%: 16.7%

Those measures were taken before this workout, and will count as my ‘depleted’ scores.

Start: 10AM
End: 11:30AM

OBSERVE THE CARB LOAD

1. Smoothie King’s Strawberry Hulk w/ Muscle Builder (or whatever the creatine+glutamine stuff is), used fat-free yogurt instead of pecan ice cream, sized @ 20oz
2. 3 chocoloate chip cookies from The Chocolate Factory
3. Chicken Chalupa w/ baja sauce + bacon club chalupa and an order of cinnamon crisps at Taco Bell
4. 59g Baby Ruth bar (grabbed it in the gas station when I was buying milk, $0.69!)
5. A gallon of milk and a box of raisin bran crunch, the 56oz box. Whichever one is the bigger one because that happened to be on sale at Sentry. (Didn’t finish the box until Friday’s breakfast, and finished the remaining cup or so of milk after I got home from Friday’s workout.)

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Ow, My Everything (P3C4D1)

Tuesday I decided to run a depletion workout to “make up” for the Independence Day Eat Like a Moronathon.

And, well… holy fucking ow.

The routine I’m following for this cycle is based off of Lyle McDonald’s Ultimate Diet 2. The nomenclature for the, uh, callsign stuff, is changed as follows:

• Phase and Cycle numbering will press on linearly. It’s a different diet set-up, and the workout is different, but it’s still “the next in line.”
• The workout LETTERING, however, will change. A and B will be reserved for when I return to a LeanGains-inspired routine. For Lyle, I’m using D, T, and P: Depletion, Tension, and Power workouts as inspired by him.

I’m not actually running UD2, because I lack the autism for that. But a lot of the principles will be recognizable to those who have read it, and utter nonsense to those who have not.

If you haven’t read it, tough. I’m not going to go out of my way explaining what I’m doing beyond this: the depletion workout day(s) are exactly as it sounds. It’s high-volume, low-nutrition (specifically carbs), and murders my muscles. The tension workout primes me for a carb refeed, which in turn fuels me for a power (strength-retention) workout. I only plan for the poundages to go up on the power workouts and POSSIBLY tension (meaning: I’ll decide when I get there.)

The marker for improvement with the depletion workouts will be that I get them done faster.

I wasn’t used to such high volume, and I found myself winded and needing to rest way more than I would have liked with this type of workout. I had to drop poundages several times to be able to continue working. I’m going to use the lowest numbers that I found in this workout in the next depletion workout to be the weight across all sets in the next attempt at this workout. I was time-restricted to begin with, taking so long get through this workout had an exaggerated annoyance factor for this reason as well (I need to be done by 11:30AM to have time to shower and be on a bus to visit a friend an hour-and-a-half away, on time.)

So, not having time for the full four-hour workout I would have “liked,” I did two rounds, one of each depletion. The distinction between the two is purely hitting chest, back, and midsection from different angles. This will be obvious when you look at the routine itself.

Depletion Workout for July 6, 2010

Round One

• Leg Extension / Leg Curl Superset (no rest)
  • 65lbs x 15 / 55lbs x 15
  • 50 x 13 / 45 x 15
  • 30 x 15 / 25 x 15
• Chest Press / Row Superset (no rest, except *five minute break)
  • 75lbs x 12 / 75lbs x 12
  • 65 x 12 / 60 x 6*
  • 50 x 15 / 45 x 15
• Lateral Raise / Calf Raise Superset (no rest, except *five minute break)
  • 50lbs x 12 / 45lbs x 15
  • 35 x 15* / 45 x 15
  • 35 x 15 / 45 x 15
• Dumbbell Curl / Cable Pushdown Superset (no rest)
  • 10lbs x 15 / 27.5lbs x 15
  • 10 x 15 / 27.5 x 15
• Cable Torso Twist
  • 30lbs x 15
  • 30lbs x 15

Ten minute break, then on to the next round.

Round Two

• Leg Extension / Leg Curl Superset (no rest)
  • 30lbs x 15 / 25lbs x 15
  • 30 x 13 / 25 x 15
  • 30 x 15 / 25 x 15
• Incline Press / Pulldown Superset (no rest, except *five minute break)
  • 45lbs x 15 / 75lbs x 15
  • 45 x 15 / 75 x 12*
  • (should have done a third set, but I didn’t)
• Lateral Raise / Calf Raise Superset (no rest)
  • 35lbs x 15 / 45lbs x 15
  • 35 x 12 / 45 x 15
  • (only two sets on shoulders, did the third set of Calf Raises later)
• Dumbbell Curl / Cable Pushdown Superset (no rest)
  • 8lbs x 15 / 27.5lbs x 15
  • 8 x 15 / 27.5 x 15 ~ really had to push for the last couple reps on the left arm curls
• Crunch Machine
  • 30lbs x 15
• Calf Raise
  • 45lbs x 15
• Crunch Machine
  • 30lbs x 15
  • 30 x 15
  • 30 x 15

While I never sat around and ‘rested’ like I ordinarily would, I certainly didn’t make any effort to rush from one machine to the next. The extent of my rest periods would probably be the 20 seconds or so it takes walking from one machine to the next.

Workout Start: 9:05AM
Round 1 Finish: 10AM
Workout End: 11:20AM

Weight: 169.5lbs
Body Fat Percentage: 16.9%

I ate somewhere in the neighborhood of 175g protein since that workout. Presently fasting until pre-workout tomorrow barring any wonky blood sugar issues or free lean protein.

Seeya then!

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Notation Notsure (Workout A1)

Yesterday was the beginning of my 26-week quest to sub-10% bodyfat.

TONETONETONE

I’m not really sure how to title these posts based upon what I’m doing. I was thinking something like “Cycle 1, Workout A1″ but then I realized that doesn’t really cover my dieting phases.

Phases: periods of dieting (DIETING IS A PHASE HURR)
Cycles: periods of training (since this is infinitely continuous)
Workout: eponymous

Phase 1 Cycle 1 Workout A1 just seems really cumbersome. P1C1WA1, aside from looking hilarious, just sounds a little clinical to me.

Maybe what I’ll do is have a normal post title and just try to cram that stuff in in parentheses. Almost like I did here with this post. I’d go back and change it but I’m too lazy to update the permalink too.

Workout for Monday, May 24, 2010

Something different that I did was walk on the treadmill between exercises.

T(readmill): incline/mph; time @ approx HR

Bench Press (free weight)

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 50 x 3
3. 70 x 2
4. 85 x 8 (not bad)
5. 85 x 8 (last rep was slow as hell but I didn’t want to stop at 6)

Going to keep the weight here until it just ‘feels’ easier.

T: 2/2; 5min @ ~100bpm

Incline Press (machine)

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 75 x 3
3. 90 x 2
4. 120 x 1 (SLOOOW, felt like I was choking!)

Obviously staying the weight.

T: 2.5/2; 5min @ ~90bpm

Hammer-Grip Horizontal Press

1. 50lbs. x 3
2. 70 x 2
3. 85 x 8 (pretty easy)

This exercise I definitely want to increase weight on.

T: 2.5/2.5; 5min @ ~105bpm

Pushdown

1. 27.5lbs. x 5
2. 32.5 x 2
3. 37.5 x 12

Again, pretty easy. Probably will increase next workout as well.

T: 3/2.5, 5min @ ~105bpm

Pulldown

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 65 x 3
3. 85 x 2
4. 110lbs x 8

I could have done more probably, but my grip was failing. Especially on my right wrist which felt like my hand was being pulled out of the joint.

I’m going to increase the weight.

T: 3/3, 10min @ ~120bpm

Workout Time: 108 minutes

Body Weight: 167.5lbs
Body Fat Percentage: 17.4%

Condition: C+. Intention to come into this workout fasted went in the completely opposite direction of coming in carb-loaded. Didn’t get a full night’s sleep (too excited to work out, was anticipating a hair cut that I didn’t get.) I had a decently recuperative power nap pre-workout though. Had some peanut squares (kind of like peanut brittle, from Old Dominion) and a plain blueberry bagel about two hours preworkout due to a blood sugar crash.

Took EC about an hour preworkout and nearly two hours post, due to sauna (and just because that’s when it would have been timed, anyway.)

Pre-sauna weight: 168.5lbs
After 3 sessions, 20/10/10 = 40 minutes: 165.25lbs.

My goal was to try to drop three pounds and I did so, though it was more to lose the water from around my face to help gauge how my hair was going to look when I become leaner.

I ate a little under 1500kcal over the entire day, which is roughly half maintenance. I’ll be trying for maintenance today (should be pretty easy) and then fasting tomorrow.

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Bookstore Blackout

Eghh.

Workout on Monday after a long weekend of not-really-eating-or-sleeping screwed with my readings a bit, but going into the gym RAGED certainly helped push the stacks.

Workout for Monday, April 5, 2010

Pulldown

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45 x 5
3. 40 x 5 (oops, I moved the modifier blocks off the stack but forgot to change pin position)
4. 80 x 3
5. 100 x 2
6. 120 x 4 (too much arms, weight stays)
7. 105 x 5
8. 100 x 4 (arms at first, caught myself, cleaned up)

Incline Press

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45lbs x 60
3. 75 x 3
4. 105 x 2
5. 120 x 3 (wouldn’t have made another complete rep, form was flawless, weight stays)
6. 90 x 8 (too much arms at the end)

I skipped my last drop set because my left shoulder was starting to protest and I didn’t want to wind up being able to not do shoulder work at all. I took some time to rest and reflect on my numbers so far. The only thing that really occurred to me was that I shouldn’t beat myself up (so much) over using my arms in max-effort lifts. They’re compound movements. I’m supposed to be using them. I still take note of it, though.

I really makes it feel like HIT’s pre-exhaust principle on a much lesser scale. When I start my pulldown warm-up sets it’s basically all lats moving that weight. When I get to the top set, my traps are pushing my shoulders down to keep them activated, my biceps and delts are screaming, and then once the handle gets to about my eyebrows, the lats kick in perceptibly.

Incline press, right now, I really gotta watch about my shoulders. I don’t mind my arms contributing here, but I do NOT want to develop a shoulder issue. It’s mostly my left delt.

Lateral Raise

1. 40lbs x 3
2. 55 x 2
3. 75 x 4 (traps!)
4. 70 x 5

Again, a further drop set felt beyond me. The whole workout took about an hour and a half. I didn’t break a sweat and wasn’t expecting to bump into anybody important, plus the last place I’m going to start crying is in a men’s locker room shower. So that’s where I left it.

BW- 162lbs.
BF%- 20.2% (the only things I did eat in the past four days were some cookie dough blizzards (2) and barbecued meat (half rack of ribs, chicken thighs) and a couple bowls of oatmeal. This result is not surprising, and I tried (failed) to let it not bother me.)

Condition: C

Loki is trolling me.

I walked about in the sunshine. I forgot it was Spring Break. Fuck my life.

Well not really. I don’t have a girlfriend, I don’t really have an obligation to GUILTGUILTGUILTGUILT. So I didn’t I ogled like the creepy bearded motherfucker that I am. I’m going to shave it soon and I will miss people intentionally avoiding me.

But on my way over to… well, nowhere I suppose, just trolling around, I noticed a familiar profile pass me into a Reebok store. Not once to follow a woman (into a shoe store) I paced in the hallway until she came out, which turned out to be not so long. She recognized me immediately and said hey, and so social interaction continued. I don’t often see people I knew from school and my general M.O. with them is avoidance, but in this particular case I was willing to talk with her if she knew who I was without me saying anything.

So score one for her. She’s not a dick.

We walked around and caught up. Her cheating manwhore ex, my, uh, not-a-man-but-we-can-apply-the-rest.

Then after that I went to the bookstore and read some comics. I started to blackout (I think they’re actually called gray-outs) and I caught myself from it. I don’t remember what I was reading but I immediately took my phone-less happy-ass out of there and got a ride home.

And then found that I couldn’t sleep.

Fuck.

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BigGame

Still sick. I wanted to start fasting today, but it just didn’t happen. I ate pretty much the entirety of my maintenance calories for breakfast and then slowly adding on top of that throughout today. Blah.

Tomorrow will probably be my last day of over-maintenance eating, if I go above maintenance at all.

I just got my Yohimbine HCL in the mail, too, so I’m going to begin taking that tomorrow. Probably before I work out.

I’m going to write up my workout for Saturday so I don’t have one of those annoying doubled-up posts. I don’t get to yammer as much about nothing when I do those. So I don’t like them. Saturday I did a couple sets of direct arm work: triceps, biceps, and wrist extensors. I’ll probably only do direct arm stuff every other workout, though, to sidestep worries of overtraining them.

I might work wrist flexors next time. My hands seem to finally be in line with my forearms so I can try adding a bit of mass there without worrying about my hand idly slapping the white part of my arm.

Workout for Saturday, March 20, 2010

Read the rest of this entry »

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Feversore

Believe me, nothing is trivial.

I am sick. First time this year. It’s destroying my diet.

I worked out anyway. Headcold I told myself. Whatever.

Workout for Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Pulldown

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45 x 6
3. 50 x 5
4. 70 x 3
5. 90 x 2
6. 110 x 3 (form is good, weight stays)
7. 100 x 4 (form is good, weight stays)
8. 90 x 5 (EASY, weight increases)

Incline Press

1. 45lbs x 5
2. 45 x 5
3. 45 x 5
4. 60 x 3
5. 75 x 2
6. 90 x 5 (easy, increase)
7. 75 x 6 (good, increase)

Something I have to note, though, is that the weight jumps on the incline machine only go 15lbs. at a time. I really don’t think I’m going to be able to push 105lbs., but I also think 90lbs is too easy for this rep range, so I’ll just try to get in one or two more reps. I’ll set the ceiling for this lift at 8 reps at the present weight. A 15-pound jump would be an increase of nearly 16%, which would probably knock out like six reps from the previous weight. So I’ll wait until I could crank out at least two reps before I attempt an increase. My math kind of sucks.

Lateral Raises

1. 30lbs x 3
2. 45 x 2
3. 55 x 8 (easy, increase)
4. 50 x 6 (okay; increase)
5. 45 x 6.5 (was getting weak but still more than five reps, increase!)

I abbreviated the warm-up for this exercise because my shoulders are already pretty warm, generally, from the first two exercises. This turned out to be a winning idea.

I was planning on doing twists but these black guys were having a threesome under the pulleys so I decided against that.

Met this cool dude working his anterior delts next to me, name’s BRIAN. He’s like twice my age and his shoulders are the size of my head. I like that guy. He was black too.

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Panda Bull

I woke up on my own in time to check my email and get my stuff for the gym ready. I went out, made my protein shake, and as I was drinking it noticed that my mom (ride to the gym) had left without me.

Mother…

So I called my dad and we ran a side errand and he dropped me off at the gym.

I get into the locker room, open my bag: didn’t put my notebook (workout log) in the bag.

…Fucker.

I decided to strike a balance between volume and intensity by testing my 5RM. I figured that today I’m ‘primed,’ carb-loaded but not weighed down, not tired, and only a little stressed/pissed off… which may have actually helped my cause anyway. I beat the shit out of myself in lieu of being capable of kicking anyone else’s ass.

I basically did straight sets until I couldn’t perform five reps. Then de-loaded for the following two sets as though I was reverse pyramiding as usual.

The top set weight is what I’ll be striving to MAINTAIN as I go further into my diet.

Workout for Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pulldown

• Sets of 5: 45, 55, 70, 85, 100lbs.
• Set of 3: 115lbs. (form not so good, but adequate, I got it below my chin without curling it)
• Set of 5: 105lbs.
• Set of 7.5: 95lbs. (5-second hold on the half-rep)

Incline Press (Nautilus)

• Sets of 5: 20, 25, 30, 35, 45lbs.
• 1 rep: 60lbs.
• Set of 3: 50lbs.

I didn’t like the way my shoulders were feeling on this machine. It felt like I was activating too much of my lateral delts and not my pecs. I switched over to the machine next to it, which looked more like a wide-grip incline press setup. The weights weren’t as minutely customizable (no 5 or 10-pound jumps) but, form is key! The whole reason I’m switching over to machines is so that I can let form concerns be less on my ass than they otherwise would be.

Incline Press (Star Trac)

• 8 reps: 45lbs.
• Sets of 5: 60, 75lbs.
• 3 reps: 90lbs.
• 7 reps: 75lbs.
• 12 reps: 60lbs.

And so you see, only my top set can stay where it is. However, being that the jumps are only in 15-lb increments, the two deload sets have nowhere to go. I guess I’ll just rep it out like a madman, hah.

I decided to do some crunch machine to give my shoulders a bit a break. I don’t think that I’ll be doing abs on a regular basis, or, if I do, I want to see if I can find that ‘twist’ machine so I don’t just work this part of my core, and so that I don’t totally rape my shoulders trying to do them with cables.

Nautilus Crunch

• Sets of 5: 20, 35, 50, 65, 80, 95lbs. (the last set I noticed that the handgrips were too high and caused too much of my arms assist in the pull, so I raised the seat)
• Not even a rep: 100lbs.
• 5 reps: 95lbs.
• 6 reps: 90lbs.
• 11 reps: 85lbs. (WHEW!)

Lateral Raise

• Sets of 5: 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70
• 1.5 reps: 75lbs.
• 3 reps: 70lbs.
• 4.5 reps: 65lbs. (held at halfway for a bit, didn’t count the length of the hold)

I skipped cardio for today. I was pretty beat and the workout already took about two hours. I don’t think I want to spend longer than two hours at a time in the gym if I don’t REALLY have to.

Weight: 164lbs.
Body Fat: 17.6% (I’m starting to get irritated by trying to get my hydration levels right!)

Condition: PRIMED! (new factor I’m recording, I don’t think I could have felt more ‘ready’ to work out than I did this morning.)

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The Daily Plate

[Warning: The below is one of those STATEMENT type posts. I try to only write posts for things that I HAVE ALREADY DONE rather than WISHAN, AN HOPEN. This post is an example of the latter/fail.]

I made this for deviantArt when I was a teenager.

You know, it’s really time to stop fucking around.

My diet is crap.

I’m so carb-loaded right now it hurts. Seriously. Nevermind the disgusting bloated look that comes from moderate constipation and carb-load powers combined. My muscles themselves feel overstuffed.

I might managed to knock out a set of chins at LBM tomorrow, lol.

I really want to do a depletion workout tomorrow to prep for tat-support tomorrow (hangings with the gal frand y’know.) But I’m also fuck-awesomely strong right now and I’d like to abuse it before I get into some kind of protein-sparing modified fast of insanity.

Which I full intend to do, starting Thursday, just in case she decides to make a pizza while I’m over. That happened last time. I feel like such a douchebag refusing to eat free pizza, so, JUST IN CASE, I’m saving the crash diet for Thursday.

What I’m probably going to do is the strength workout, rest a bit, depletion workout with lessened/eliminated volume on the body parts already hit.

WHICH REMINDS ME: I’m dropping deadlifts.

Yeah that’s right. I said it. (Please kill me.)

I just know that as soon as I deplete I’m going to be weaker than all hell and I just will not have the form necessary to feel good about myself deadlifting. Wavering deadlift performance has been the single most destructive factor to my dieting efforts, I’m sad to report. It’s my favorite life, but I just cannot be risking my back (literally) deciding between dieting and RAWR. RAWR always wins, but it’s not getting me any closer to my goals other than keeping my posture sexy.

My back is still a little sore from fucking up that ONE REP not too long ago. I was sick, granted, but that’s pretty much how glycogen depletion feels to me. Fucking sick.

Starting today, though, I’m back to legitimately recording my intake. I’ve been writing it down on paper for a long time since I’ve abandoned Windows (and by extension, FitDay) but I’ve not been tracking numbers and is really just a testament to how lax I can really be. I KNOW I’ve been eating to much, no foggy iffy memory about it. I’m fucking up, I’m not losing fat, and I’m only marginally stronger. This amounts to FAIL.

So I’ve signed up at the daily plate.

Today I don’t really care. I’m keeping myself loaded so tomorrow I can put up the biggest numbers on my three most important lifts to me (Pulldown, Incline Press, Lateral Raise) and then keep them there as I lose my artificial benefit. As much as I love carbs, this bloat is disgusting. I feel like a panda. I’m 165-170lbs. right now and I’m really hoping that a lot of that is water weight.

But I’m not retarded, either.

So I’m going to spend two days making sure I can get my calories in order, and then from Thursday on begin stripping carbs. Quicker the better, but I’m hoping by Monday of next week to be on a PSMF cycle and jogging my way to some relief from pandabelly.

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Moving the Blood Around

I haven’t been feeling so well lately, though I haven’t missed workouts because of it, it’s been making me feel obligated to eat a bit more, and this is bothersome.

Especially combined with constipation.

I have this mental habit of not allowing myself to vomit. I used to eat competitively (derp) and it’s just reflexive. Like those girls who deepthroat for a living get over their gag reflex, I can put a lot down my throat for the win.

So I’m just going to post up two workouts and leave it at that.

Workout for Thursday, March 4, 2010

This is a sequel workout to the one from “Show Prep.” I designed a full body workout for myself of moderate intensity for those days I’m just not feeling it. Those days I can’t lift heavy as a bitch nor have the stamina for a legitimate depletion workout.

After lifting poorly on Tuesday my deadlift muscles (lol, mostly lower back) were killing me and I decided to do some cardio at the end as well. So I skipped direct leg or ab work, aside from calf raises. I figured maybe getting the blood moving would relieve some soreness and make me feel okay about having more carbs that night.

Which I did.

• Calf Raise: [Warm-up: 2x5@15; 3@20; 2@45] 4×12 @ 60lbs. (increase) ~ left foot hurt like crazy afterward, but went away ten minutes later

• Chest Press: [Warm-up: 3@20; 2@25] 2×12 @ 30lbs. (increase)

• Pulldown: [Warm-up: 3@15; 2@25] 2×12 @ 40lbs. (really easy but felt GREAT; increase)

• Incline Chest Press: 2×12 @ 30lbs. (I didn’t make a note of difficulty, I’m going to increase it though)

• DB Curl: 2×12 @ 8lbs. (pretty easy until the last four reps; increasing)

• Cable Extension: 2×12 @ 7.5lbs/arm (significant effort on the last reps; not sure I want to increase it, given the exhaustion from pressing. I’m going to, though.)

Cardio: Bike, level 3, 25 minutes. Ending heart rate was about 123. I forgot to write down kcals or distance, but it actually started feeling like I was riding a bike. I’m going to go for increased time at the same level, next workout.

My body weight was 165lbs. Jesus. I need to poop.

I didn’t bother checking my body fat percentage.

The workout in total took just over an hour.

Workout for Tuesday, March 2, 2010

I felt absolutely horrible on Monday, and Tuesday was only just enough better to convince myself that I have no excuses to be missing workouts.

I paid for that.

Deadlift

1. 70lbs. x 5; hook-grip hang
2. 70lbs. x 5; h-gh
3. 105lbs. x 3; h-gh
4. 150lbs. x 2; from floor, hook-grip. Grip slipped though and became barely-overhand. Should have taken this as a sign. Thought nothing of it at the time.
5. 185lbs. x 1 (goal was five); fml right hand under

This coolbro doing squats next to me chatted about leg power with me. He was half-squatting 405lbs. for reps (I asked, and he said it felt like a house, which is absolutely true) so I didn’t really, you know, argue with him. I was also dying. Apparently he felt the same way, but we shitgrinningly optimistic’d through it and shook hands and introduced ourselves.

His name is Keen, and he’s apparently been seeing me come in consistently for a while. Good for him! I’ve never seen him before.

Nice guy though. I saw him leaning on the stick I use for shoulder dislocations and told him that “if you can’t walk on your own, man, you’re pressing too much!” (He had moved o nto doing bropressive amounts on that machine.) He laughed it off and proved he was okay.

Incline Bench

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 45lbs. x 5
3. 45lbs. x 5
4. 60lbs. x 3
5. 80lbs. x 2 – started to feel ‘wrong’
6. 90lbs. x 1

I definitely got the weight up, but I didn’t feel right about the form I was using. I might not have been entirely wrong, or it could have been right, but I had my suspicions and I wasn’t about to make a bad thing worse. I proved to myself that my maximal strength is there, felt uneasy, and I stopped.

I think if I had done less warm-ups on my incline and rested a little longer I could have gotten all four of the reps I set up for myself today.

I did not fiddle with my loading to account for feeling unwell, I just loaded as usual and… essentially: if the way I’m feeling is just in my head, well, it’s infecting my confidence under the bar, too.

Hi-Lo Twists

1. 20lbs. x 5
2. 20lbs. x 5
3. 30lbs. x 4 ~ ugh, someone snags the other pulley. I like to check form in the mirror!
4. 40lbs. x 3
5. 50lbs. x 5 (excellence; increase)

I did more warm-up reps than I should have, but I was determined to get at least one of my exercises right today.

Which I totally did. Rawksome.

Cardio: Bike, level 2, 30 minutes, 5.12miles, 145kcal, average HR 120-125, even easier than the previous workout.

Weight: 160lbs.; 19.3% body fat (full of shit)

Workout took about an hour and a half of my life.

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