Aprun

While I have been keeping a log of my meals and general intake, today I’ve actually plugged those figures into a proper calorie count to see where I stand.

5-Day Average

Calories: 2826
Fat: 98g
CHO: 390g
Protein: 120g

The craziest thing to me: if I were to reduce my average carbohydrate intake by 250g (so, down to 140g) I’d lose 2lbs. of fat that week.

I really just wanted a relevant snapshot to see how much of a fuck-up I’ve been since I’ve stopped being incredibly anal as to what goes into my mouth. I’m just assuming that this is my maintenance intake. If I come in somewhere around 167-173lbs. at tomorrow’s pre-workout weigh-in, then it definitely is. ¹

A pretty fabulous fuck-up, it looks like! I even managed to get weaker, way to go!

I’m pretty much at my last-call to looking good for this summer. I have a convention to attend in June to look my best for. Odds are, if I can’t manage to look cut and inspire envy in the otaku of Texas, I’m going to give up on this venture entirely and fully focus on strength gains for a few years. ²

I’m not entirely sure how I want to set up my workout, though. I’m fairly convinced I want to do “Deadlift + Incline Bench” ONLY, but I want a little more frequency than what that would demand.

I want to work out roughly every four days, but also wouldn’t mind making the “B” workout optional/droppable in the event of a suddenly-busy schedule. I can usually find ONE day a week to exercise, and if I have only that one day I’ll deadlift it.

Initially considering something along the lines of:

A
Deadlift – 1 x 1-3
Incline Bench – 1 x 3-5
[Chin Assist - 1 x 3-5]
[Lateral Raise - 1 x 5-8]

B
Squat – 1 x 3-5
Flat Bench – 1 x 5-8
[Low Row - 1 x 5-8]
[Lateral Raise - 1 x 8-10]

Deadlift + some kind of press is pretty much a full-body workout. If I didn’t have any benches to work with I’d just do a basic military press.

I suspect someday I’ll have such a situation ³ as the incline bench is a vertical push, I feel it has enough synergistic benefit to be applicable. It’s also easy to “save” myself from it if I fail, using my legs.

The bracketed movements are “optional for this workout,” and I chose chin assist as it’s another vertical pull. It’s also something I want to get stronger at, which is the theme here anyway.

The second workout is a little trickier for me. I wanted it to be a lighter workout, one that didn’t demand as much of a strain on CNS but would still force me to focus (this has been a problem for me with the high-rep routines I’ve been trolling myself with lately.)

For the first two movements, I simply threw in the remainder of the Big Three. I’m sure RDLs or power cleans would be more supportive of my deadlifting, but I feel that performing RDLs degrades my DL TECHNIQUE, which I sweat, and that power cleans are too technical for me if I’m to be dieting. If I could achieve passable form of complex moves, I’d be doing Olympic lifts.

And I’m sure it’s weird to be lifting less on Flat Bench than on Incline Bench, but it’ll probably catch-up/exceed it eventually anyway. I don’t mind.

The rows are the plane-opposite of flat benching, so there that is.

I saw no reason to replace Lateral Raises. They’re already optional. If I’m too burnt-out to do lateral raises it’s not as though I’m going to be able/willing to do much anything else. Abs? Curls? Fuck that noise.

Maybe calf raises.

MAYBE.

Probably not.

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Countdown to 21: Second Workout

Posting the whole thing all at once this time since I have the time to kill.

Also to show how much better it is to cut it up…

New notebook is the first one that isn't just a generic solid color. 89 cents from Wal-Mart.

Workout for Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Body Weight: 163.5lbs. (-2lbs.)
BF%: 16.5% (-1.3%)

Skinfold
Belly Button: 31mm (-7mm, the goal is 4mm, long way to go; taken an inch to the right)

Pre-workout: 50mg ephedrine/200mg caffeine

START TIME: 9:00AM

I’ll be noting the rest periods before the set lists; the rest times are ONLY for work sets. Warm-ups don’t have a set amount of rest, I just go when I feel ready.

Deadlift

Rest: 5 min.

1. 135lbs. x 5 (double-overhand)
2. 145 x 2 (d-o; form was much better here, nearly perfect)
3. 155 x 10 (left-under)
4. 155 x 10 (left-over)
5. 155 x 10 (l-u)

I find myself having to reset my grip (due to failure) and needing to catch my breath by the 7th rep or so. Need to work out a proper tempo. Will be increasing the load next workout (this workout was a +20lbs. increase.)

Pulldown

Rest: 2 min.

1. 55lbs. x 3
2. 75 x 2
3. 85 x 8
4. 85 x 8
5. 85 x 8

Increasing.

DB Shrug

Rest: long; had to wait on grip recovery. 3-6 minutes.

1. 25lbs. x 3
2. 35 x 2
3. 40 x 8
4. 40 x 8
5. 40 x 8

Increasing. Weight is per-dumbbell, and it was far too easy despite my grip problems.

Narrow-Grip Cable Row

1. 75lbs. x 3
2. 90 x 3
3. 105 x 8
4. 105 x 7
5. 105 x 6

Stay.

10:45AM = Break to regroup concentration.

Back Extension

1. 55lbs. x 3
2. 80 x 2
3. 95 x 15
4. 95 x 15

Increasing. Felt really good, though.

Reverse Concentration Curl

1. 10lbs. x 5
2. 20 x 7
3. 20 x 6
4. 20 x 4

Stay. I tried to go straight into the 20s but it wouldn’t budge.

Squat

1. 105lbs. x 10

BREAK: 11:40AM

Incline Bench

Rest: 5 min.

1. 45lbs. x 6
2. 55 x 3
3. 75 x 2
4. 85 x 9
5. 85 x 8
6. 85 x 6

Increasing. I didn’t make rep goals for any of my work sets, but my next workout is the scheduled scheme-change, and I’ll be doing 4×6 instead of 3×10. I didn’t get less than six reps on any of my sets here so I’m confident I can make the leap.

Machine Fly

Rest: 2 min.

1. 75lbs. x 8
2. 75 x 8
3. 75 x 8

Increase. I almost thought I was going to have to do warm-up sets when I couldn’t get the weight to move… and then I realize the weight was set much higher from the last guy (120lbs.) Derp. I figured out a lot about the form for this, as well, this workout.

Lateral Raise

Rest: 3 min.

1. 50lbs. x 3
2. 65 x 11
3. 65 x 9

Stay. I really do not want to cut the warm-up set here, but I do need to make it lighter. Maybe 40-45lbs for that set, next time.

Tricep Extension

1. 12.5lbs. x 10
2. 12.5 x 4

Stay. My left arm is really crappy!

Crunch

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 65 x 3
3. 85 x 2
4. 95 x 8
5. 95 x 8
6. 95 x 8

Increase. I was enormously surprised at how easy this actually was, after doing back extensions.

BREAK: 1:30PM

I didn’t plan the rest of this workout. I thought vaguely that I could maybe try something like I’d done last time, but, I don’t want that to be a “regular thing” and I don’t really care about my progression on it, so I allow myself to go into it blindly and “on feeling.”

I chose the same three exercises as last time, but this time I did it as a tri-set: no dedicated rest between individual exercises, and then 2 minutes of rest between each tri-set.

So:

• Pulldowns @ 25lbs x 20 reps
• DB Bench Press @ 20lbs. total x 20 reps
• Close-grip Cable Row @ 30lbs. x 20 reps

I did that for five tri-sets before stopping.

It was around 3PM, my blood sugar had skyrocketed (into the 400s), and I was pretty much beat. I probably could have done some more tri-sets, but I would have been really grinding them out.

Instead, I attempted cardio!

Stationary Cycle

Distance: 3.66 miles
Time: 30′ 17″

I probably could have kept going, my patience just biking is pretty high. However, it was immensely worn-down by the fact that I’d brought my phone and expected my Last.FM app to work. The frustration at it loading slowly, and only barely playing the beginning of one song (TEASE) just made me ragequit for the day.

Which turned out just fine because I bumped into a friend who was walking home, and got to chill out and watch Friday while I waited for my ride home (two hours later.)

…

TWO MORE DAYS.

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Countdown to 21: First Workout (Part One)

So I’ve set a goal to eat an entire cheesecake for my birthday. I didn’t just set it as I was writing this, I’ve known for quite a while now that this is something I have to do. It’s part of who I am, and it needs to be done.

I can fit a lot of the white stuff in my mouth, given the opportunity.

The event will occur on Friday, January 28. The first day of prep: January 16.

I may be parodying my over-drama tone here, but I am really fucking serious about this.

Workout for Sunday, January 16, 2011

Body Weight: 165.5lbs.
BF%: 17.8%

Pinches (skinfold measurements)
Chest: 12mm
Belly Button: 38mm (the goal is 4mm, long way to go; taken an inch to the right)
Thigh: 22mm

Pre-workout: 50mg ephedrine/200mg caffeine

START TIME: 9:00AM

Squats

I haven’t done squats in well over a year. I don’t think I’ve recorded a workout on this version of the blog containing an honest-to-god Squat-fronted (as opposed to front-Squatted, which is a different thing) workout. It’s been so long that I decided to set this up, as I often do when incorporating a new movement, by doing a rep test. I’ll be following a linear periodization scheme with this exercise as I move forward, so the reps performed reflect how many I’ll be doing at this phase.

I kept the rest periods to about 3-5 minutes. They were actually longer at the beginning, once I decided that 135lbs. was going to be my working weight I cut down to three minutes of rest.

1. 45lbs. x 10
2. 65 x 10
3. 85 x 10
4. 95 x 10
5. 115 x 10
6. 135 x 10 (starting to get heavy, and I don’t think if I increase it I’ll have the stamina to do another two sets)
7. 135 x 10
8. 135 x 6 (form was falling apart)

I will probably still increase this lift the next time around, as it’s going to be a few weeks before I squat again. I’m just not patient enough, but if I don’t make ten across after the jump, I will stick with THAT weight.

Leg Curl

1. 40lbs. x 5 (was intended to be a warm-up set of 25lbs, but I screwed up how I wrote it down.)
2. 40 x 8
3. 40 x 8
4. 40 x 8

Two minutes of rest. Definitely going to increase this next time around.

Calf Raise

1. 30lbs. x 15
2. 30 x 15
3. 30 x 15

Two minutes of rest. Increasing this as well.

I am probably going to not be including further warm-ups for leg exercises following squats. I only had one, on leg curls, and it wasn’t even necessary given that I screwed it up and still can bump the weight for next time.

Crunch Machine

1. 45lbs. x 5
2. 60 x 3
3. 80 x 4 (forgot it was warm-up, did two extra reps until I realized)
4. 90 x 10
5. 90 x 10
6. 90 x 10

Two minutes of rest. Increasing load.

Cable Low Row

1. 45lbs. x 6 (did one extra just for form’s sake)
2. 75 x 3
3. 90 x 2
4. 105 x 8
5. 105 x 8

Two minutes of rest. Workout’s going great so far. Increasing this as well. Two minutes of rest.

Concentration Curl

1. 5lbs. x 5
2. 10 x 10
3. 10 x 10

Another worthless warm-up set. Increasing. Two minutes of rest between sets (all of these have been for between sets, but I do also rest for two minutes before starting the next exercise.)

Romanian Deadlift

1. 60lbs. x 3
2. 85 x 2
3. 100 x 10

Because of how much I was supposed to de-load from my working Deadlift weight for this lift, it would have been impractical for me to do conventional deadlifts. So I didn’t.

I will be increasing this, I just am not sure by how much, yet. I might just keep it at a set percentage, so that if my conventional deadlift doesn’t go up, neither does this.

BREAK TIME: 11:11AM (I wished I could keep working out, HAH.)

More later, this workout hasn’t ended yet…

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She Grabs My Ass and I Deload

Body Weight: 161lbs.
Body Fat Percentage: 18%

Flat Bench:

1. 100lbs. x 2 (and 3 assisted…)
2. 90lbs. x 5 (+)

Incline Bench:

1. 80lbs. x 5 (+)
2. 65lbs. x 5 (+)

Incline Fly:

1. 25lbs. x 4
2. 25lbs. x 4
3. 25lbs. x 2

Plus sign means “increase next workout.” Just trying some easier notation for myself.

Now I get a little volume-bonkers.

Horizontal Row: 6×12 @ 40lbs. (+)

Lateral Raise: 2×12; 1×6 @ 10lbs. DBs

Squat: 1×12 @ 45lbs.

[WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM]

Bicep Curl: 2×12 @ 5lbs. DBs (+)

Triceps Pushdown: 2×12 @ 30lbs. cable (+)

Cable Crunches: 6×12 @ 30lbs. (+)

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Goal Revision

I’ve been spending more time away from the gym than I ordinarily would like, but my immune system has been taking hell lately and I’d rather not take more stress than I absolutely have to. I seem to have an inverse gym-to-thinking ratio; the longer I stay away from the gym the smarter and more introspective I become. I have to fix that.

Optimal health over the long-term is the only real goal, after all.

However, I do have three major goals over the next eleven weeks:

1. 10% or lower body fat percentage.
2. Run continuously for 20 minutes.
3. Squat 300lbs.

They’re in a specific order, too. They’re in the order of effort I’m putting in, in order of likelihood to occur, in order of what I’d like to have and INVERSE order of what I would really enjoy doing.

A lot of people get mixed up. Yes I would like to HAVE sub-10% bodyfat, but I don’t really enjoy DOING WHAT IT TAKES to have it. Important distinction. Though honestly I enjoy squatting and also would enjoy having a BW-multiplied-by-whole-number PR.

And to be honest I don’t really care a whole lot about running one way or the other, so sticking it in the middle is accurate. I don’t really care about running, I don’t really think I enjoy doing it, but just having some aerobic fitness couldn’t hurt, and certainly contributes to my caloric deficit for fat loss. Family has a history of heart problems and diabetes, and I’ve already neglected the latter, so might as well take care of a problem before it can happen, you know?

Optimal health over the long-term.

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Upper/Lower Body Split

Ughhh…

I feel like I’m speaking heresy. But I’m “using a four-day upper/lower body split, in combination with an hour of cardio daily, to lose fat.”

It’s in quotes so people can mock me when I go back to a pure workout for real men.

Today I found out I can’t make PRs in squats and deadlifts after four days of low-carb/low-calorie dieting. Who knew?

Stats
Total Weight: 164lbs.
BF%: 17.8
Fat: 29.192lbs.
LBM: 134.808lbs.

Today was a… lower body… legs day… UGH THIS SOUNDS SO STUPID.

Squats: 1 x 5 @ 200lbs.
Deadlifts: 1 x 2 @ 170lbs. (failed to lift 205lbs workset)
Hack Squat: 1 x 5 @ 45lbs. (first time doing this)
Leg Curl: 1 x 5 @ 75lbs. (making up for FAILURE deadlifts, only not really, surprisingly painful)

I did five minutes on a treadmill before I remembered the walk I have to do tomorrow. Love ya Sarah!

Some more rage: I’ve lost less than a pound of fat per month for the last three months.

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Full-Belly Workouts

I think I should stop having a bowl of oatmeal before I workout. It’s fucking up my bodyfat readings. Not to say I’m NOT a lardass, but the meter is essentially laughing at me as hard as I was laughed at in middle school. It saddens me.

10/8/09
Deadlift – 1 x 1 @ 195lbs. (left hand under, after failing a right-under of 205lbs.)
Bench – 1 x 4 @ 95lbs.

So next workout I bump up the Deadlift and Bench stays the same.

BW: 171lbs.
Fat%: 19.3lbs. (33lbs.)

10/14/09
Squat – 1 x 5 @ 195lbs.
Press – 1 x 2 @ 70lbs. (FUCK!)
HamChin – 1 x 5 @ 55lbs. offset (114lbs lifted; since I’m the same weight I was the last time I attempted this lift, I got the final rep I wanted, yay!)

Weight: 169lbs.
Fat%: 22.8% (38.5lbs)

See, this is why I shouldn’t eat a big bowl of oats before a workout. Not only when I breathe deep do my lungs expand fully, push down my organs, and make me feel like I should shit right there in the squat rack, but it bumps my bodyfat up too! Waah! I don’t really know how to do the math for this! So I gained nearly six pounds of fat and lost… seven and a half pounds of muscle. What the fuck? /sarcasm

At any rate, I need to get my diet in order. I think I’m going to change to something a little more staggered, where the majority of my calories are eaten on training days. I know that retained water artificially inflates my bodyfat “score” but I’m not going to be doing any bizarre glyco-deplete bullshit until at least a month from now.

Invoking Katch-McArdle: 370 + (21.6 x 58.725) = 1638

Multiplied by an activity factor of 1.375 leads me to 2252 calories for daily maintenance.  Suddenly the weight gain doesn’t seem so implausible =\

Anyway, I’m going to be eating at maintenance on training days ONLY, and dropping to 30% of that on days I don’t train. As much as I hate to diet by percent, I’m going to just for the sake of daily adjustments/sanity. Fat/carbs/protein; 20/50/30.

Using today as an example: I eat as close to 2252 calories as I can without going over and with getting at least 169g protein.

Tomorrow, I’ll assume nothing has changed, and use “yesterday” values: 2252 – 30% = 1576, with 118g protein and 197g carbs.

And then Friday I go to the gym again, so I’ll re-weigh and re-measure accordingly. I’m going to try to go in without a carb meal (maybe just some eggs or a proshake or something), it won’t fully deplete me or anything but I hope to get a more accurate reading nonetheless. Then I’ll use that to calculate for that day, which will be hard to manage if I don’t get to my dad’s house for fooding up, and then for the low days following all the way to Monday.

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Training Update

I’ve been forgetting to update the blog, but I haven’t been forgetting to workout. Because I’m not gay.

9/25/09
Squat: 1 x 3 @ 170lbs.
Press 1 x 5 @ 65lbs.
HamChin: 1 x 5 @ 60lbs. offset (I don’t know how much I weighed this day, scale was DISAPPEAR)

10/2/09 – First Workout @ L.A. Fitness
Squat: 3 x 5 @ 185lbs. (almost failed the very last rep, BUT I DIDN’T)
Bench: 2 x 5 @ 80lbs. (also did 1×1@85, before these two sets)
Deadlift: 3 x 1 @ 185lbs. (need chalk, need big socks, form, etc.)

Weight: 168lbs.
Bodyfat: 17.4%

10/6/09
Squat: 1 x 4 @ 195lbs. (failed my 5th rep, looks like another week until 200, FUCK!)
Press: 1 x 2 @ 70lbs. (this exercise: I really miss having a mirror to check form it; felt like my abs were cleaning my pelvis)
HamChin: 1 x 4 @ 55lbs. offset (I almost want to count the 5th rep, I just SO SLIGHTLY missed it, but again: Not a faggot.)

Weight: 169lbs.
Bodyfat: 20.1% – disregarded; carb-loaded

HIGHLIGHTS

Gym Salesman “This is the squat machine–”
Me “Machine? No.”
GS “I know you said you don’t like machines, but in case you injure yourself–”
Me “I’ll wait on it and go back to the rack when I’m healed.”
GS “Okay, but when you squat, it puts pressure on your knees?”
Me “…Yes. [suspicious]”
GS “Right, when you squat down and your knee goes past your foot, you put tremendous pressure on your knee. This machine allows you to squat without that pressure, so you can keep squatting when your knees are sore.”
Me “I just squat with proper form and avoid this issue entirely.”

GS “So today’s Friday and you’re doing squats, so you probably aren’t benching today, but here are where the benches ARE.”
Me “So I see… what makes you think I’m not benching today?” (refer to my workout schedule above)
GS “A lot of people have their ‘chest day’ on Monday.”
Me “Oh, right. I forgot about that…”
GS “When’s your chest day?”
Me “The day I work my chest.”
GS “…”

So next to me, this black curlmonkey starts doing his barbell curls in the other squat rack. Fine, whatever, I only need one squat rack until I’m superhuman so I just rest it up while I watch him do push-curls (like a push press, only with curling… that uh.. sort of… “put your hips and back and drop your head into your shoulder blades like you’re about to cum” way of curling.) I look at his notebook and notice that this Friday, Mr. Monkey is hitting his biceps from all angles.

Monkey “You gots a notebook too?”
Me “A-yup.”
Monkey “Dats cool bro, you gotta keep track yo shit.”
Me “Shore do.”
Monkey “I do so many sometimes I fergit.”
Me “So many what?”
Monkey “Uh [checks notebook] …curls.”

Golden.

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Weak Workout

I didn’t get enough sleep. I think I underate the day before, and… I just felt generally shitty. But I didn’t want to completely skip a workout, so I skimped on the sets and tried to push the weight higher as I normally would have.

• Squat: 1×5 @ 160lbs.
• Bench: 1×5 @ 75lbs.
• Deadlift: 1×5 @ 155lbs.

I find it particulary agitating that my deadlift days have been compromised thus far. I hope this is not a trend that continues.

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Lifting Goals, Phase One

Going to briefly recount Wednesday’s workout, and then gloss over the first stage of lifting goals that I have.

• Squat: 3×5 @ 150lbs.
• Press: 3×5 @ 55lbs.
• HamGrip ChinAss: 3×5 @ 90lbs. offset (80lbs. lifted)

So, if you couldn’t deduce, I weighed 170lbs. on Wednesday. I did not bother testing body comp.

My lamer beginner goals are as follows:

• Press: 110lbs.
• Bench Press: 165lbs.
• Squat: 220lbs.
• Deadlift: 275lbs.

I should be there in like four months right? Yeah!

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