Swami Vivekananda:
"Strength is Life. Weakness is Death."

Ow, My Everything (P3C4D1)

Posted: July 7th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Body | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

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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Happy Princess (P1C2B2)

Posted: June 17th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Body, Chat | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Went to the gym yesterday morning, finally having a dollar for the soda machine.

Fucker was shut off. Logic’d my way into walking across the parking structure under the assumption that, hey, they probably have these for fuckers heading to work. Bam. There it is.

Dollar was too crinkly. I smooth it several times before hoping I have a dollar in my wallet. I try THAT dollar, twice, before the machine lolquits at me (the dollar-accepting thing turns off if you try too many times to prevent sodahax.)

Top floor of parking structure is the one that leads to my gym. I give up my sodaquest and take this loop-way of getting to the gym. There’s one soda machine on this leg of the journey, and it too is shut down.

I make my way in, put my bag on a chair, and dig out my keys (login badge thing is on it) front desk lady is ALWAYS unfailingly nice to me. She asks me how I’m doing and I lie blatantly. She says she’s doing good too.

In the locker room. I’m already wearing gym clothes so I simply deposit my bag. I get some nail clippers out, clipping nails at a counter. I finish, I hear my phone, I go back to the locker. Check messages, okay whatever, back to the counter…

WHEN SUDDENLY, A DOUCHE APPEARS:

D- “Are you going to pick those up?”
Me- “…Why, do you need a snack?”
D- “That’s disgusting.”
Me- “Don’t judge me by what YOU put in YOUR mouth.”
Another guy comes into the locker room, puts a shaker-bottle thing on the counter, goes to his locker.
D- “Don’t use that counter, this kid put his nails all over it.”
Me- “Nevermind that bro, this old fart leaves cocks in his mouth and forgets to swallow.” I sweep the nails into a trash bin that’s put under the counter FOR THIS REASON “Are we happy, princess?”

I got shitty looks from him for the next hour or two I was in the gym.

Day was significantly improved.

Workout B2 for Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Romanian Deadlift

  1. 45lbs x 5
  2. 70 x 3
  3. 90 x 2
  4. 115 x 3
  5. 110 x 3
  6. 105 x 3

5% drops from top set because I didn’t want to increase reps from set to set. Took a note that I was stepping forward to rack the weight with my left foot.

Pulldown

  1. 40lbs x 5
  2. 55 x 3
  3. 75 x 2
  4. 95 x 4
  5. 85 x 5
  6. 75 x 6

10% drops, since this exercise is a 4-6 rep range anyway.

Lateral Raise Machine

  1. 30lbs x 5
  2. 45 x 3
  3. 60 x 2
  4. 75 x 4
  5. 65 x 5
  6. 55 x 6

10% drops, which are HUGE here since I round up. It’s supposed to be a back-off day.

Torso Rotation Machine

  1. 30lbs x 5
  2. 45 x 3
  3. 60 x 2
  4. 75 x 4
  5. 65 x 7
  6. 55 x 10

I actually had this load setup for doing weighted crunches, but I felt myself in a twisty mood. My obliques haven’t been worked lately and I was surprised that I just-as-barely got through them without altering the weights. 15% drops are harder to manage with such low weights. I piled on reps which, in retrospect, is an ass-backwards way of tackling that problem.

Cardio: 20 minutes, 3 incline/ 3.3mph; Heart Rate @ 135bpm @ finish. The ceiling is 150bpm so I can keep increasing the speed… whenever I manage 40 minutes.

Weight: 162lbs.

I was going to test body composition by the personal trainer dwarf snatched up the handzapper. So I’m going to save that for Monday.

Also Monday: I will be deciding how I’m going to progress with this diet. It’s been two cycles, so roughly four weeks. Typically I see folks have their diet phases lasting anywhere from 4-8 weeks unless they’re horrifyingly fatassed. I’m going to fast tomorrow and do some carb-depletion stuff over the weekend to try and dry-out before measuring on Monday.

Body Fat Percentage Results

  • 13%+: I’m just going to continue the diet for another cycle. No-prob-bro.
  • 11 – 13%: Diet break for one training cycle, then continue the diet and training as I have been.
  • <11%: Diet break for one training cycle, then I’m going change everything around to resemble Ultimate Diet 2.

I’ll probably round the results down if I have a convincing decimal or something, but that’s generally where my mind’s at.

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