Tuesday - more running

Took the dog on a jog this afternoon (around 2:00pm, I believe).  Just a single mile.  Would have been 1.5 miles, but we met a snake and turned back.
After the jog, I did some hang snatches and a few front squats.  No drive for anything more.

At 17:30 I went for a run around the block.  4 miles, 39 minutes.  Some jogging, some sprinting, some walking.  I really need to improve my straight running ability and decrease my time.

Overate today.
Had a double serving of chicken fingers with meal #4.  Meal #5 had a protein bar tossed in.  Meal #6 I added some slivered almonds to my rice goo.

Also - wrangled Kai.  Got kicked in the head.  Don't feel so hot right now.

monday - running & stuff

Went for a run today.  Only about 2.5 miles total.  Well, jog/walk/run, at various times.  I am really out of shape for road work.  Meh.  Plus, I had forgotten how much it kicks my ass.

Food wise, I have been very bad today.  Had quite a bit of apple sauce, and a long food.  Curse you, beans and flour tortilla.  Ugh.  Must remember not to do that, regardless of the convenience factor.

@22:30 - I did some LISS on the bike this evening, as well as 6x8 pullups (various grips), and a bit of ab work.

2011-05-29 Checkin [188.75 @ 33.25]

Mass:  188.75 (-3.25)
Waist:  33.25 (-0.25)
Arm:  15.875 (+0.125)
Thigh:  23.75 (0)
Calf:  14.5 (0)

Nothing major this past week.  My diet is not extremely rigid, but seems to be working.  Workouts progressing as well

Main principles:
1.  6 meals/day
2.  Breakfast & peri-workout:  ~30gP + 40gC
3.  Other meals:  ~30gP + 20gF
I also have carb meals if I am feeling really drained.  Some days I have 2-3 carb meals, some days I have 4-5.
4.  Surge WOF during workouts
5.  Geraniamo, 1.25g L-Tyrosine, & 2.5g ALCAR thirty minutes pre-workout
6.  5-star circuits.  Squats + OHP, Deads, Bench + Back.  Each twice a week

Starting today I will be taking a morning dose of caffeine, green tea, chocamine + glucoronolactone, L-tyrosine.  Hopefully this will help me wake up better.

This week is deload.  So cardio (need to start using the X-vest for walks and use the bike), some lat & bicep work, and low volume/weight for other exercises.

Saturday - deads

Did my deadlift workout today.  Went decently.  Nothing major to report.

Next week I will be doing a deload.  Back/bicep work, cardio, and very low volume on the other stuff.  Then I will restart the 5-star with more weight and another circuit.

Friday - Bench & Back

Well, that kind of sucked.  I have absolutely no endurance today.
Cycle 1 - 5 reps
Cycle 2 - 4 reps
Cycle 3 - no gas at all

I did some back & bicep work, but nothing impressive.  I'll try deads tomorrow.

Thursday - Squats & OHP

Did my squats & OHP workouts today.

Squats went well.  Left patella was a bit funky on one cycle, but it worked itself out (I think I just had my knee in  a bad position).  

OHP - was going very well.  had lots of strength, especially on pin pressing.  However, on my third cycle I missed the pins on the left side, so I had an "oh fuck" moment of juggling the bar.  After getting it racked, I stopped the workout so as not to injure my delt.

Overall, pretty good day.  Just hungry.

Tuesday - bench & back

I seem to have trouble benching after a deadlift session.  On Friday, I am going to bench first and see how that goes.  But seeing how I did not bench yesterday, I am going to do that workout today, along with some back/bicep work.

If this works well, I might continue in a similar vein.
Monday - Squats+OHP
Tuesday - Deads
Wednesday - Bench + Back
Thursday - Squats+OHP
Friday - Bench + Deads

@12:30 - Did chest workout.  Tried a different bench technique (shoulders shrugged, elbows tucked).  Kept my shoulder from twinging, but killed my triceps.  My chest barely felt anything.  I'll have to keep experimenting to find a way to stress my chest but keep my shoulders happy.

Also did some pullups, rows, and bicep curls for the fun of it.

Monday - Deads (early)

I did my deadlift workout very early (started at 09:30), due to needing to take Wendi to get her tattoo.

I made it through three rounds, rather than four.  I was just out of gas.  Ordinarily I have at least three meals in me before lifting.  Today I had one (larger than normal, but still).  Putting off benching until tomorrow.

Also, in the evening (around 19:00), I picked up 20 bales of hay.  Which counted as a bit of GPP.

2011-05-22 Check in [192.0 @ 33.5]

Yeah, not surprising that my measurements suck this week.  Had Youngs twice (Wednesday & Saturday), and did not hit all of my workouts.

This week I am going to rigidly adhere to my diet and workout at least four times.  Single sessions for each if possible.  But I will start with lower body each time.  If I make it through all four rounds of lower body, I will go to upper body.  I might need to drop the rack lockout for bench day.  It seems to fuck with my shoulder.

This week is sets of 5 for main movements, so 20 reps total.  Next week is adding weight and dropping back to three reps.  However, I am going to increase to five cycles, so I will start out at 15 reps, then 20, then 25 (this first series I was at 12, 16, 20).  For my third series (providing all goes well), I will again up the weight, but move up to six cycles.

Friday - Deads

@13:30 - Not as productive a session as I wanted.  I started with deads, and only did three rounds.  My mid back was starting to get twingy, and I also wanted enough juice to do my bench workout.  Yeah, about that benching thing....

I felt fine during warmups, but my first lockout caused my right shoulder joint (clavicle tie-in) to scream.  So I wimped out.

Thursday - Squats & OHP

I only did a single session today.  It went rather well.  I did squats, followed by OHP.  Four cycles of squats, and then three of OHP.  I was just running out of steam by the end, which is why I cut my workout short by one cycle.  Strength existed, just no more endurance.  Still, I am fairly happy with it.  Tomorrow I might try the deads & bench in a single session.

Wednesday - cardio & pain

My traps & neck are still messed up.  So I am not lifting at all today (fuck).  Did one light session of SS cardio earlier, will probably do another soon.

mid-week weigh in sucked.  Back up to 190#.  I don't know what was going on Sunday.  Down 7# in a 1/2 week, then back up 5 a few days later.  *sighs*

Tuesday - no go

My neck & traps are jacked up.  Tried to lift, failed mightily.  Ah well

Monday - Shoulders & Squats

Yesterday I crashed out majorly, even including a cheat meal.

Woke up this morning with very stiff/sore traps.  I blame the cat, as I was cuddling her most of the night and my arms were not in a good position.

@13:00 - Shoulder workout went pretty well.  Had to drop weights a little bit at the end, but not bad overall.

@17:15 - Squat workout was "eh".  Got three cycles, rather than the desired four.

• My energy levels were very low
• my shoulders/neck are still really tight, which made setting up difficult
• my left knee twinged on my third round

Due to the above, I opted not to push my limits.  Also, this workout is a bitch.

2011-05-15 Check in [185.0# @ 33.25"]

MEASUREMENTS
Weight:  185.0 (-7.0)
Waist:  33.25 (-0.5)
Arm: 16.0 (no change)
Thigh:  23.75 (no change)
Calf:  14.675 (-0.125)


Dropped seven pounds, but most of that is water weight and/or bloat.  My waist is still way too large.  In the middle of March I was at 185.75, with a 32.75" waist.  Ah well.  Hopefully that will tighten up rapidly.


As a note:  if I drop more than about 3# this week I will increase my food intake.  The 7# drop includes the fact that I only worked out for half of the week and had a couple of restaurant meals.  My food levels might be too low for starting out.

Saturday - deads

I got through two whole rounds of the deadlift workout.  I had zero energy.  And I also dropped weights.  Deadlifts I only used 315# (rather than 365#), and power cleans I used 135# instead of 155#.  The DB swings at 35# were a joke, however.  Meh.  Hopefully I will do better on Tuesday.

Friday - Bench & Deadlifts

OVERVIEW
Bench workout - good.  Endurance failed, but otherwise good.
Deadlifts - no-go.  Too late, too long between meals.

@12:15
Bench workout went rather well. Started running out of muscular endurance on my last set (had to drop weights, lost a few reps).  Chest definitely feels it, but my shoulders are fine (no pain at all).  Also, I remembered to stretch afterwards (go me!).

@20:00 - Could not do the deadlift workout.  Tried, and I barely got through the warmups.  I'll try again tomorrow.  I am blaming my failure on going to town this afternoon.  My meal schedule got messed up, I was kind of crashed out, and I did not get to start my deadlift workout until 19:45, way too late.  I just had no juice

Thursday - START 5-STAR

OVERVIEW OF DAY

• Squat workout - tough, but not bad.  
• Need to start Top-Squats from j-hooks to prevent back injury
• Crashed @ 13:30, due to not eating soon enough after squats

LOG

@12:30

Just did the squat portion of CT's 5-Star complex.  Only four cycles.  Holy hell I was dripping sweat and huffing.  Made it through, and the only thing I had to lower weight on was my final set of top-squats (dropped from 335# to 315#).

For the top squats - the first rep is tough, but once I get set at the top it is pretty easy to keep going.  I do let the bar rest on the pins between reps (no bouncing), but I am able to keep the proper tension between reps.  I'll need to practice my first rep set up so it is not so brutal.

Overall, the workout went quite well.  Just about 30 minutes, including warm ups and rest periods.  Each cycle (lift, set up next exercise, etc) took just about 4 minutes.  Add in the 60ish seconds between cycles, and that gave me about 20 minutes of lifting with 10 minutes of warm ups.  Not bad.

This afternoon, I will be doing the overhead press workout.

NOTE - Start the top squats from j-hooks.  Reason:  lower back is twinging now, and I am willing to bet it is due to that first top-squat rep.  Yes, this will require moving the hooks between exercises.

@14:00 - I crashed hard around 13:30.  Wobbly, could not talk well, etc.  So even including Surge WOF and Recovery, I only have about an hour after lifting to consume food.

Monday - starting diet again

Today I begin a sixteen week diet cycle, peaking in early September. As I have noted previously, I need to drop about 25#.  Should not be overly difficult.

My current plan is roughly:
1.  start rudimentary carb cycling - High carb days when I lift, low carb the other days
2.  add in fat burner supplements
3.  add cardio on non-lifting days
4.  replace two High days with Medium days
5.  add cardio on lifting days
6.  reduce intake on all days (high, medium, low)
7.  increase cardio (more sprints, longer sessions, etc)
8.  reduce intake

I will progress through the stages as necessary.  When fat loss slows down, I will go to the next stage.  Hopefully this progression will get me to where I need to be without reducing my food too much.  I'd rather add more exercise than cut my diet more.  Granted, my schedule will depend upon work, but this should suffice.

2011-05-08 Checkin [192.0 @ 33.75]

Mass:  192.0
Waist:  33.75
Arm:  16.0
Thigh:  23.75
Calf:  14.75

Tuesday - deaflifts, benchpress, speed practice

Today I will be trying out the deadlift and benchpress workouts for the 5star complexes.

On a tangent - my speed squats suck.  I have no speed.  So for practice, I am thinking about doing speed bodyweight squats on off days along with my back work.  So do a set of pullups, then a set of squats, PLP style.

Monday - testing out 5star

@10:00
Just tried out the shoulder routine of the 5star complex.  Seems effective.  I only made it through 2.5 rounds, but that is because I am dialing in.  I will do the squat portion later today.

@[later]...
I did the squat routine later in the evening.  Kind of beat me down, but that was mostly due to A) cold; and B) not eating enough today.  So when I do it for real, I should be much better.

So far, my downfall has been the speed motions (DB OH press, speed squat).  I apparently suck at explosive/speed lifting.

2011-05-01 Checkin [189.5 @ 33.0]

DETAILED MEASUREMENTS
Weight:  189.5 (+2.0)
Waist:  33.0 (no change)
Arm: 16.0 (no change)
Thigh:  23.5 (no change)
Calf:  14.75 (+0.125)