Review Phase 1

Posted: June 25th, 2010 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body | Tags: change, goal, goals, lean, lifts, obsessiveness, phase, reflect, review, success, weight loss | No Comments »

I originally tried to cover my thoughts on this in my workout post, but it was getting a bit cluttered so I decided to reflect a little more in a proper post on the subject.

The first question to answer: Was this Phase a success?

Yes

• I lost weight
• Lifts are still going up
• My face looks leaner
• It wasn’t difficult

No

• 66% of the weight I lost was lean mass
• My torso still looks like shit, shit on sticks, because my legs are tiny

So, yes!

After the first couple weeks I dropped the obsessiveness I thought was implicit with dieting to a low body fat percentage. I know I’ve been favoring carbs pretty heavily, as per my strength goals, but I think that I’ve been too “oh I’m at maintenance today I don’t need so much protein” devolved into not eating much protein ever. There aren’t really a lot of protein foods I enjoy that I can eat on a regular basis, so I just… don’t worry about it.

But now I’m worried about it.

What worries me about continued lean loss is if it’s really only coming from muscle.

I like training fasted, I’m pretty used to it by now. The day of my workout I’m rarely hungry, though, and I think that’s contributed heavily to lean catabolism. (However, I do consider “the day after” to be post-workout as well, and I DO eat substantially on this day.) In combination with my PWO cardio dabblings, I really should not be surprised.

The second question to answer: Given the results, what’s the goal for the next phase?

I really liked how much fat I lost. I do NOT like how much lean mass I lost. So that’s what I’m going to change.

If lose half as much lean mass in Phase 2 as I did Phase 1, and lose the same amount of fat, I will just BARELY lose more fat than lean mass. That’s the direction I want to go in. I want to lose at least two pounds of fat, and less than that of lean mass.

So if I lose 2lbs of fat and 1.999lbs of lean mass, Phase 2 will be a success.

Final Question: What is being changed?

Just two meals added to my routine:

1. A protein-in-water shake before I leave for a workout (it will probably muck up the effects of my preworkout EC. I don’t know, and will find out.)
2. A cup of cottage cheese or some eggs in the last meal of the day, training or not.

I know next-to-nothing scientifically about the protein requirements of anything. I’m still not going to try to hit some calculated protein target per day. That has made me fatter in the past, as I slowly trend to paying attention to those grams rather than total calories. This seems like an easy thing to fix, but I’ve fucked it up frequently enough to not want to risk it.

But I don’t see the value of STARTING with too much.

One thing about difficulty: I can’t think of any immediate complaints, because I don’t constantly worry about it. If there’s one major pro to all of this, it’s that the mental load is relatively minimal.

Yes. This is minimal for me.

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Notation Notsure (Workout A1)

Posted: May 25th, 2010 | Author: ERIC | Filed under: Body | Tags: bench press, cycle, fat, horizontal press, HURR, incline press, phase, pulldown, pushdown, sauna, treadmill, weight, workout | No Comments »

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

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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