Under 8 weeks left (7.5 to be exact), and all this not eating has me looking forward to the next phase. I am planning on starting a bulking cycle immediately after the September competition. What does this entail? Lifting heavy & often ( 5 times/week instead of 4) and eating a ton (4,000-5,000 calories/day instead of 1,700-2,500).
Lifting:
Day 1: Chest & Tris
Day 2 AM: Back & bis
Day 2 PM: Hamstrings & Calves
Day 3: Shoulders & Traps
Day 4: Cardio or off
Day 5: Quads/Calves
Day 6: Shoulders/Traps
Day 7: Cardio or off
This should address my weak legs by splitting them into two days, and what I've been told are underdeveloped front and mid delts by lifting them 2x per week. Most likely I'll use this as my main split, but once a month or so I'll do a split that hits bis & tris 2x per week, and then another one that hits lats 2x per week. In each of those splits I'll only do shoulders once, but still split quads and hams into two workouts.
Eating:
Planned macros (updated each time I go up 10 lbs, using the next 10lb marker as my 'bodyweight'):
.5g/lb Fat
3g/lb Carbs
1.5g/lb Protein
That puts me at ~4500 calories to start (using 200lbs as my first marker). It would start out something like this:
Morning shake (immediately on waking up):
5oz banana
50g whey
30g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize
1 hr later
9 egg whites & 1 whole egg (jumbo)
1.5 cups oats
1 serving chia seeds
Mid-morning shake
50g protein blend
3/4 cup oats
50g maltodextrin
1 serving fruit blend (20g carbs)
1 serving almonds
Postworkout Shake
50g whey
4oz banana
20g dextrose
20g maltodextrin
30g waxy maize
Lunch
1.5 serving whole wheat pasta
3oz salmon
3oz chicken
2 HB egg whites
Pasta Sauce
1 serving fruit blend (20g carbs)
Afternoon Snack
2 tbsp peanut butter
4 oz ground turkey/ground beef
3 oz chicken
4 slices whole wheat bread
Dinner
400g Sweet Potato
3 cups spinach
4oz steak
3oz chicken
1/2 cucumber
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup carrots
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
2 servings chia seeds
Before Bed
50g Casein Shake
Rules:
Must have morning shake, breakfast, and afternoon salad. No exceptions. Mid-day meals are adjustable, but I'm going to try and stick to it as religiously as possible. Pizza, ice cream, burgers, chinese, etc. is all on the table so long as I make sure I'm getting enough calories in and it's within reason as far as how often I have it. Of course, all this is predicated on me getting and staying healthy.
My last bulk I was full all the time, to the point where it was time for my next meal but I wasn't particularly hungry. The results were good though, and at this point in my cut it feels like there's no such thing as being full as I haven't really been full in about 2 months now. All this food is making me hungry (no my salad did not fill me up & I still have another 45 mins until my night time shake), so I'd better stop talking about food. 7 more weeks!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
It's Always Something...
So the quad has still been hurting, but definitely improving. I can jog with no problem, lifting my leg up/down/side to side doesn't hurt, and I can rep out on leg lifts (abs). I still feel a little stretch when I hit my squats, but nothing too bad. On leg day, I was fine squatting 240 (10 reps) for 4 sets. I was planning on going into front squats after, but right before my first set I dip below the bar and I feel this pain & burning in my left knee. I try a practice squat w/ no weight, and a pain like I've never felt before. The pain persisted after I came up into a standing position, and anything I tried bending my knee would hurt. No squats, hack squats, leg presses, leg extensions, etc. I hit stiff deads, adductors, abductors, and lying leg curls and got out.
The knee still hurts, more than the quad now. I am bracing it 24/7 so I have some compression on it, and have been icing on and off. Not much else I can do about it.
On the plus side I weighed in at 187.0 this morning. If I can just get healthy in the next couple/few weeks I'll have enough time to make a few adjustments before the competition. Only 8 weeks left!
The knee still hurts, more than the quad now. I am bracing it 24/7 so I have some compression on it, and have been icing on and off. Not much else I can do about it.
On the plus side I weighed in at 187.0 this morning. If I can just get healthy in the next couple/few weeks I'll have enough time to make a few adjustments before the competition. Only 8 weeks left!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
8.5 Weeks Out
The last week and a half have been a whirlwind. 16 hours of driving this past weekend, 5 the weekend before. A lot of time spent making and prepping food @ home to take out of town with us. I weighed in this morning the lowest yet, 188, but I did cardio last night so I may have just been depleted of water weight. Either way, I was 190 Monday so the pounds are coming off slowly but surely.
The quad is still not 100%, but I got a half decent lift in on Thursday...Squats, sumo deads, & stiff deads. However, I think I overcompensated for my quad with my back...and it's been killing since. I rested my legs yesterday (should have done deads & iso work) so that I could get a solid lift in on Thursday. Whether that will happen or not is up in the air. As of now anything that stretches my upper quad into my hip flexor is out (lunges, leg extensions, seated calves, possibly step ups), but I should be able to knock out back & front squats along with trap bar deads and maybe leg press.
The cardio plan for this week is 3 30 minute sessions (already did 2 yesterday & today, third one is planned for Saturday evening). Surprisingly, I was able to go full speed on the elliptical and didn't feel any pain whatsoever. A good sign at least, hopefully the improvement will crossover into lifting.
The quad is still not 100%, but I got a half decent lift in on Thursday...Squats, sumo deads, & stiff deads. However, I think I overcompensated for my quad with my back...and it's been killing since. I rested my legs yesterday (should have done deads & iso work) so that I could get a solid lift in on Thursday. Whether that will happen or not is up in the air. As of now anything that stretches my upper quad into my hip flexor is out (lunges, leg extensions, seated calves, possibly step ups), but I should be able to knock out back & front squats along with trap bar deads and maybe leg press.
The cardio plan for this week is 3 30 minute sessions (already did 2 yesterday & today, third one is planned for Saturday evening). Surprisingly, I was able to go full speed on the elliptical and didn't feel any pain whatsoever. A good sign at least, hopefully the improvement will crossover into lifting.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
10 Weeks out...OUCH
So let's start with leg day this past week. Everything went really well. Squatted 8@265, form wasn't perfect toward the end...but still pretty solid. Friday was my off day, and my first day at the lowest carb level I'll hit for the rest of the 10 weeks. It wasn't too bad, .5g carbs/lb bodyweight which is 95g for the day. Had a good lift in Charlottesville on Saturday, Chest & Bis. Hit 225 for 11 on bench, pretty good for a 190 lb guy who has struggled on bench for my whole life.
So that leads up to today, I hit my cardio (session 1 of 2 planned for the week), 30 mins plus abs. I left the lock off my ipod, so when I went to use it, it had already died. It was a little rough getting through a half hour on the elliptical without any good music (pop was on the gym station, Lady Gaga...ugh...), but I got through it just fine. Then in the afternoon I had football. First drive, moving down the field I take off on a QB run towards the sideline and I hear a loud *POP* come from the front of my leg and I immediately drop to the ground. The pain wasn't as bad as when I tore my hamstring a couple years ago, but something is definitely not right. I can't lift my leg or walk properly without feeling some strain in my quad, which is going to seriously put a damper on my leg days, & possibly on my cardio.
On the drive home i contemplated dropping by KFC for a double stack, or Mickey D's for a McFlurry...but I was good and I am resolved to stay on the competition diet until I know for sure I won't be able to compete. I should be ok, will probably need to take this week of legs and kick it into high gear next week. Ice & rest, hopefully things will make a turn for the better this week...
So that leads up to today, I hit my cardio (session 1 of 2 planned for the week), 30 mins plus abs. I left the lock off my ipod, so when I went to use it, it had already died. It was a little rough getting through a half hour on the elliptical without any good music (pop was on the gym station, Lady Gaga...ugh...), but I got through it just fine. Then in the afternoon I had football. First drive, moving down the field I take off on a QB run towards the sideline and I hear a loud *POP* come from the front of my leg and I immediately drop to the ground. The pain wasn't as bad as when I tore my hamstring a couple years ago, but something is definitely not right. I can't lift my leg or walk properly without feeling some strain in my quad, which is going to seriously put a damper on my leg days, & possibly on my cardio.
On the drive home i contemplated dropping by KFC for a double stack, or Mickey D's for a McFlurry...but I was good and I am resolved to stay on the competition diet until I know for sure I won't be able to compete. I should be ok, will probably need to take this week of legs and kick it into high gear next week. Ice & rest, hopefully things will make a turn for the better this week...
Monday, July 5, 2010
12 Weeks Out
12 weeks to competition (NPA Natural USA Championships Sept 25, 2010). I have been carb cycling and eating 100% clean for the last week and a half, so I've lost the initial water/undigested food weight already. My starting weight is 192, a good 8 pounds ahead of what I started at for the last competition, and 12 pounds away from where I want to be at competition day.
Being a lot closer to my competition weight, I don't need to press as far as cutting down my carbs quite yet. My carb cycle looks like this:
Low Carb - 150g
Moderate Carb - 200g
High Carb - 300-350g
My low carb days are on my off & cardio days, moderate on lifting days, and high carb on leg day & one day during the week. Closer to competition I'll cut down to 1 high carb day a week on leg day, but so far I've been getting good results with this so I'll stick to it for now.
This week I'm going to do 2 very light ab & cardio days (already did one on Saturday).
My last 2 lifts have absolutely sucked. About halfway through I've gotten really tired and nauseous and dragged through the remainder of the workout. Today I couldn't even finish biceps & quads because I thought I was going to puke on the gym floor. I switched my normal preworkout shake the last two days, so I assume there's something in the new stuff that doesn't agree with me. I'll go back to normal on Wednesday and hopefully be fine.
One last noteworthy thing, today I did regular deadlifts for the first time in about a month. 3 sets of 5x345. Form was good, though I must have held my breath because after each set I felt progressively more light headed and faint-ish. Definitely not positive, but the back held up and felt ok which is much more important right now.
Planning for Shoulders on Wednesday and Legs on Thursday. I'll try and get another post in before the week's up.
Lift numbers so far this week:
Chest/Tris
BB Bench 6x245
Inc DB Bench 9x90s
Dec BB Bench 7x225
DB Flyes - 9x60s(2)
Cable Pushdowns - 10x 95
Bench Dips - 9x90
OH Cable Extensions - 8x87.5
Back/Bis
Deadlifts - 5x345 (3)
Neutral Grip Pullups - 5x100(2)
T-Bar Rows - 7x160
Cable Rows - 7x240
Wide Pulldowns - 10x200
Leg Curls - 12x175
EZ Bi Curls - 10x90
Being a lot closer to my competition weight, I don't need to press as far as cutting down my carbs quite yet. My carb cycle looks like this:
Low Carb - 150g
Moderate Carb - 200g
High Carb - 300-350g
My low carb days are on my off & cardio days, moderate on lifting days, and high carb on leg day & one day during the week. Closer to competition I'll cut down to 1 high carb day a week on leg day, but so far I've been getting good results with this so I'll stick to it for now.
This week I'm going to do 2 very light ab & cardio days (already did one on Saturday).
My last 2 lifts have absolutely sucked. About halfway through I've gotten really tired and nauseous and dragged through the remainder of the workout. Today I couldn't even finish biceps & quads because I thought I was going to puke on the gym floor. I switched my normal preworkout shake the last two days, so I assume there's something in the new stuff that doesn't agree with me. I'll go back to normal on Wednesday and hopefully be fine.
One last noteworthy thing, today I did regular deadlifts for the first time in about a month. 3 sets of 5x345. Form was good, though I must have held my breath because after each set I felt progressively more light headed and faint-ish. Definitely not positive, but the back held up and felt ok which is much more important right now.
Planning for Shoulders on Wednesday and Legs on Thursday. I'll try and get another post in before the week's up.
Lift numbers so far this week:
Chest/Tris
BB Bench 6x245
Inc DB Bench 9x90s
Dec BB Bench 7x225
DB Flyes - 9x60s(2)
Cable Pushdowns - 10x 95
Bench Dips - 9x90
OH Cable Extensions - 8x87.5
Back/Bis
Deadlifts - 5x345 (3)
Neutral Grip Pullups - 5x100(2)
T-Bar Rows - 7x160
Cable Rows - 7x240
Wide Pulldowns - 10x200
Leg Curls - 12x175
EZ Bi Curls - 10x90
Update
It's been a little while since I've posted last so here's an update in a nutshell of the last month or so. My back/hip got bad enough that I had to take a break from lifting legs. In addition, the tendonitis in my elbow/tricep wasn't going away so I decided to stay out of the gym completely for a week and call it quits on basketball. The break seemed to be pretty good. I saw the doc about my back, had it x-rayed and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Got some good muscle relaxers out of it too.
After a week of icing and popping pills, I went back to working out just lifting upper body. My bench went down 5 pounds and lost a rep on my pullups and my shoulder presses. Pretty shitty for only being gone a week, but that was two weeks ago and since then I've gotten my bench back to where it was, still down on pullups and military but hopefully staying healthy and in the gym will get them back up. I had my first full leg workout in 3 weeks on Wednesday, which went well. No pain or tightness anywhere. For now, I'm not going to go below parallel on squats, and do trap bar deadlifts instead of regular deadlifts, and move regular deadlifts to back day every other week. I kept everything light, it looked like this
Squats 12x225, 10x235
Sumo Deadlift 9x275
Deep Trap Bar Deadlift 8x255
Leg Press 6x360 (slow negatives, lift from a dead stop)
Glute-Ham Machine 6
Leg Extension 10x250
Leg Press 10x190
This week I'm going to add in lunges and pin squats. Since legs are my weakest point, every other week I'm going to lift legs twice by adding some light legs on back day. We'll see how that goes. Staying healthy is going to be my main focus going forward to the next competition.
After a week of icing and popping pills, I went back to working out just lifting upper body. My bench went down 5 pounds and lost a rep on my pullups and my shoulder presses. Pretty shitty for only being gone a week, but that was two weeks ago and since then I've gotten my bench back to where it was, still down on pullups and military but hopefully staying healthy and in the gym will get them back up. I had my first full leg workout in 3 weeks on Wednesday, which went well. No pain or tightness anywhere. For now, I'm not going to go below parallel on squats, and do trap bar deadlifts instead of regular deadlifts, and move regular deadlifts to back day every other week. I kept everything light, it looked like this
Squats 12x225, 10x235
Sumo Deadlift 9x275
Deep Trap Bar Deadlift 8x255
Leg Press 6x360 (slow negatives, lift from a dead stop)
Glute-Ham Machine 6
Leg Extension 10x250
Leg Press 10x190
This week I'm going to add in lunges and pin squats. Since legs are my weakest point, every other week I'm going to lift legs twice by adding some light legs on back day. We'll see how that goes. Staying healthy is going to be my main focus going forward to the next competition.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Injuries
So as I am sitting here right now I'm icing my hip and knee, so I think this is a very prudent subject for a post. I've had a history of knee problems, so I have to ice it at least a couple times a week & take glucosamine as kind of a preventative measure so it stays relatively pain free. I have at least 6 or 7 ace bandages at strategic locations around the house so I can comfortably ice where/when I need to. However, not having a fully functioning ice maker makes it a lot more difficult to take care of it appropriately (it makes like 20 cubes a day. Ridiculous. How do you fix an ice maker? ).
The hip is new...not really sure where/when it came from. Makes leg days (like today) pretty hit or miss. It doesn't really affect flexibility, but it makes me feel so much weaker on squats & deads and makes me a lot more tentative on heavier lifts. I probably could have hit another rep on both today but I didn't want to aggravate anything. Plus, not having anyone there to spot me or tell me if my form is deteriorating doesn't help.
Anyways, I guess this is the price one pays for training so hard. Everything has been feeling better in the last couple weeks so I can only hope the nagging injury bug just goes away without having to take any major time away from the gym.
The hip is new...not really sure where/when it came from. Makes leg days (like today) pretty hit or miss. It doesn't really affect flexibility, but it makes me feel so much weaker on squats & deads and makes me a lot more tentative on heavier lifts. I probably could have hit another rep on both today but I didn't want to aggravate anything. Plus, not having anyone there to spot me or tell me if my form is deteriorating doesn't help.
Anyways, I guess this is the price one pays for training so hard. Everything has been feeling better in the last couple weeks so I can only hope the nagging injury bug just goes away without having to take any major time away from the gym.
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