jme's journal

[kad]

Welcome to my training journal. Any comments and suggestions are welcome, of course.

Current status: bulking

Supplements (updated 10-30-05)
2x AST MultiPro 32x
5g AST Creatine Monohydrate
3g AST GABA
ON 100% whey (post workouts)
2x Kent Nutrition ALA
6x Thermocin (3x twice daily)
2000mg Vitamin C
800IU Vitamin E
2x Vitamin B complex

Training (updated 10-30-05)
Max-OT style lifting, 4-day split now.

Day 1: legs, abs
Day 2: chest, triceps
Day 3: HIIT sprints
Day 4: back, biceps
Day 5: delts, traps
Day 6: HIIT sprints
Day 7: off

[kad]

I decided not to include this week's workouts, because classes just started on Monday and I'm getting used to my schedule and trying to figure out when I'm going to be lifting and doing cardio from here on out, etc. Workout logs will be posted starting next week.

[kad]

We have today off for Labor Day, so the gym on campus is closed as well. I'll be lifting on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday mornings, and running every evening, of course keeping the two at least 8 hours apart. Nutrition is pretty spot on. Here's today's meal plan.

(2 mile run)
meal 1: 1 banana, 8oz skim milk, 1 scoop ON 100% whey, 1/2 cup (dry) oats
meal 2: 8oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup long grain brown rice
meal 3: 6oz tuna, 1oz almonds, 4 fish oil caps
meal 4: 8oz chicken breast, 2 cups stir fry vegetables, 4 fish oil caps
meal 5: 8oz chicken breast, 2 cups salad mix, 1T olive oil, 4 fish oil caps
meal 6: 8oz skim milk, 1 scoop ON 100% whey, 2T natty pb, 4 fish oil caps

2341 kcal, 79.5g fat, 151g carbs, 255.5g protein (30.56% fat, 25.80% carbs, 43.65% protein)

That's just a basic example of what I eat. I'm not posting meals every day, because it's boring and nobody cares about what I eat or how much I eat around here, just how much I'm lifting. I'll get on with that tomorrow. Just for reference, this is the basic meal plan I'm following for lifting days.

meal 1: 8oz skim milk, 1 scoop ON 100% whey, 1/2 cup (dry) oats
(workout)
meal 2: 40g dextrose, 1.5 scoops ON 100% whey (pwo)
meal 3: 8oz chicken breast, baked potato, 2 cups vegetable mix
meal 4: 6oz tuna, 1oz almonds, 4 fish oil caps
meal 5: 8oz chicken breast, 2 cups salad mix, 1T olive oil, 8 fish oil caps
(running)
meal 6: 1 banana (post run)
meal 7: 8oz skim milk, 1 scoop ON 100% whey, 2T natty pb, 8 fish oil caps

2412 kcal, 80g fat, 177.5g carbs, 245.5g protein

edit: the above doesn't apply anymore since i've increased my calories for bulking.

[ryuage]

so are you bulking or cutting?

[kad]

Kind of nervous about posting these, but here's some pics. Yes they suck. What do you think? Cut or bulk?

edit: uploaded images as attachments instead.
edit 2: pics are attached at top of thread now.

[Kiaran]

Don't be so hard on yourself, bud. Those picks don't scuk, and most people are too afraid to post anything at all for feedback. As far as what you should be doing (bulking or cutting), well, that is entirely up to you. if you want more mass, then bulk, and if you want to slim down, then cut. you mentioned you were at about 15% bf, which i don't think is too high to be bulking but some of these other guys here may have more to say on that. As far as the pics go, you appear to have a great frame to bulid onto, so just go for it man! BTW, do you have legs? there was no photo of them...

[kad]

Kiaran - thanks for the response and the vote of confidence. I do in fact have decent legs, imo. I just didn't post pics of them. Last time I checked, my calves were ~15-15.5" and my quads were ~22".

I'm going to bulk, then cut. Since I'm 181 lbs, and around 15% bf, that puts me at about 152-154 lbs lbm. Since my goal is 185 lbs and 8% bf, my lbm would need to be around 170 lbs (duh). Anyway, I'd love to pack on about 20 lbs of muscle and then cut. I know it's possible to lose bf as you gain lbm at the same time, but whatever. I'll do some reorganizing with my meal plan and start posting workouts tomorrow.

[kad]

Chest/Triceps
bb flat bench:
65x12x2 (warmup), 95x8 (warmup), 135x3 (acclimation)
155x6x2
165x4

bb incline bench:
95x6 (acclimation)
135x6
155x3 (failure)
145x4

bb decline bench:
95x3 (acclimation)
135x6
155x4

skull crushers (using curl bar):
75x5x2

cable pushdowns:
170x4x2 (entire rack)

Notes
- pretty strong workout in general.
- start with higher weight on incline/decline bench next week.
- don't use curl bar for skull crushers. form sucked.

[kad]

Cardio
16 minutes HIIT stationary bike (Max-OT style, hill interval setting)
- 3 mins @ level 6, 10 @ level 7, 3 @ level 8
- 180 cals, 6.6 miles

Notes
- start at a higher resistance level on the bike next time.
- today's diet went to crap. i ran out of whey yesterday, so i had to save the last two scoops for tomorrow's pwo shake. i also ran out of egg whites, and didn't have enough chicken cooked for this evening. i need to get my butt in gear and keep food stocked.
- forgot to post monday's cardio session... i went for a 2 mile run around the track monday evening.

[kad]

Weight: 180.5

Back/Biceps/Forearms
Chinups:
BWx5
BWx4
BWx3

Deadlifts:
135x10 (warmup)
135x10 (warmup)
185x3 (acclimation)
245x6
275x5
275x5

Bent over rows:
115x6 (acclimation)
135x4
135x5

Shrugs:
70's x 10
85's x 10

Curl bar curls:
45x10 (warmup)
75x5
65x5

Hammer curls:
35's x 4
30's x 4

Notes
- really good workout. had the strongest working sets of deadlifts i've ever had.
- work on bent over row form.
- get back on track with diet today.

[kad]

Weight: 180.5

Cardio
HIIT sprints - total time 14:48

I decided to change things up and do sprints at the track this evening. I jogged a warmup lap and sprinted the straightaways seven times. I slowed to a jog around the curves after the first 4 or 5 sprints, then for the last few I just walked the curves. I'm going to work my way up to 25-30 minutes total, keeping the pace at a jog instead of a walk in between sprints.

[kad]

Weight: 181

Legs/Shoulders
Squats:
95x12 (warmup)
135x10 (warmup)
155x3 (acclimation)
185x6
[insert talk with former strength coach about proper form]
[work on proper form using bar only]

Leg Curls: (short rests)
155x5x5

Leg Extensions: (short rests)
155x5x5

Smith Squats (to work on form):
1ppsx10 (warmup)
2ppsx2 (acclimation)
1pps+50x6
1pps+50x6

45deg Leg Press:
2ppsx8 (warmup)
2pps+50x6
2pps+50x6

Standing Calf Raises:
255x8 (warmup)
315x6
315x6

Side Lateral Raises:
15'sx10 (warmup)
20'sx6
20'sx6

Seated Military Press:
45x12 (warmup)
65x10 (warmup)
95x6
115x4

Notes
I had an interesting talk with one of the regulars that works out at the gym, who happened to be a former strength coach with 35 years of experience, about squat form today during my workout. He noticed my form was a little off, so I took his advice and worked on my form for a little while. He suggested I try to keep my lower legs as straight up and down as possible, sticking my chest out as far as I can on the way down to keep the balance. All I was worried about before now was keeping my back arched. He said it takes some of the stress off your knees and ankles, and he's seen lots of people improve their strength by doing them this way. I'm pretty sure that once I correct my squat form I'll see more of an improvement. I was impressed that I jumped up another 20 lbs this week in my deadlift heavy sets. I'll add SLDL's back in my leg workout next week. I'm also thinking about having a separate day for shoulders and traps, because I was in the gym for almost 30 minutes longer than normal today since I combined shoulders and legs (which I don't normally do).

Overall, this week's workouts were pretty strong. My shoulder strength is improving, even with my left shoulder giving me a little bit of pain. I'm just going to take ibuprofin and rub some Icy Hot on it until it works itself out.

[kad]

This weekend I was thinking about my goals, and I decided to finish what I originally started - cut down to 9% body fat. Starting this week I'm eating just below maintenance at 2800 cals a day. For right now I'm simply increasing my activity level rather than dropping my calories really low all of a sudden. I may drop them by 100-200 cals a week later on if I stop making any progress. I'm moving up to 5 days a week of morning fasted cardio. I'm lifting in the afternoons on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and I'm also playing flag football for my BCM intramural football team (it usually lasts about 3 weeks), so we have practice maybe 2-3 times a week and games twice a week, usually late at night. Our first game is tomorrow night at 11pm. Anyway, here's today's workout:

Cardio - 6:30 am
Kinda sucked this morning because the two good bikes were taken by the time I got there, so I had to use the crappy one for 30 minutes or so. I'm switching to the eliptical runner starting tomorrow, and bumping it up to 45 minutes at 70% of my MHR (~150 bpm).

Back/Biceps/Forearms - 3:30 pm
Lat Pulldowns:
90x10
90x10
110x8
140x6
160x4
160x4

Deadlifts:
135x10
135x10
225x6
225x5
225x5

Bent over rows:
95x10
135x5
135x5

Alternating db curls:
25'sx10
30'sx10
35'sx8

Alternating hammer curls:
35'sx10
35'sx10

The campus gym was packed this afternoon, and everyone and their brother was doing curls, so I didn't get any barbell curls in today. Oh well. I think today's back workout was better than last week's. I went a little lighter on the deadlift weight, and my form was a little better. My back isn't killing me like it was after last week's workout. My form was also better with the bent over rows, and my strength is improving a little there too.

Flag football practice - 7pm
Practice lasted about an hour and a half. We ran a bunch of patterns and some plays.

[kad]

Thought I'd update before I go to the flag football game tonight. I did 50 minutes of stationary bike cardio this morning at 130-135 bpm (~65-70%). My quads and hip flexors have been freaking sore today, probably due to DOMS from Saturday's leg workout coupled with sprinting when we ran routes at practice. I opted out of the elliptical this morning because of that, but the bike did the job just the same. I don't really know if there would've been much difference. I ordered another bottle of MultiPro 32X from dpsnutrition.com today, along with a bottle of AST's CLA 1000. Shipped UPS they'll hopefully be here next Monday. Tomorrow's leg workout is going to be fun after running all night tonight.

[Kiaran]

looking good, man. Getting those legs back into gear I see. Nice deadlifting too, very impressive! How is your form on your BB Bent Rows?

[kad]

Kiaran - Thanks. Leg workouts are one of my favorites, because they're my strongest area. As for BB bent over rows, my form is pretty much like this guy's.

Skipped cardio this morning because I was playing flag football until 12:30 last night.

Legs
I hate it when I get to the gym and someone's doing curls in both squat racks. So, I started out by warming up with some leg curls and extensions.

Seated Leg Curls
140 x 10
140 x 10

Seated Leg Extensions
140 x 10
140 x 10

Squats
95 x 10
135 x 8
155 x 6
185 x 4
185 x 4

45 degree Leg Press
2pps x 10
3pps x 6
3pps x 4

SLDL's
135 x 10
225 x 1 (ouch)
Didn't do any working sets of these, because my lower back was still aching from Monday's back workout. So I finished hamstrings off with a couple more sets of leg curls.

Seated Leg Curls
170 x 6
170 x 6

Standing Calf Raises
275 x 10
395 x 6
395 x 6

(Edit: checked the calf raise stack today and updated weight above)

Notes
Overall the workout went pretty well. The gym wasn't as crowded today as it was Monday afternoon, but I still had to wait for the squat rack a couple of times. Oh well. I was still feeling Monday's back workout pretty badly in my lower back, so SLDL's sucked. I'm going to have to start doing back workouts on Monday and legs on Friday to allow more rest time between DL's and SLDL's. My back's been killing me since DOMS set in. My left shoulder was also nagging me today since I hurt it last week, which I think I figured out was from DL's. I must've used my shoulders too much last last week and strained something. I'll live. On another note, we lost our first flag football game last night. At least it was fun. The FCA team is insanely fast, so there pretty much wasn't any contest. Our BCM team has some pretty quick guys, but just to put it into perspective they have 7 or 8 guys as fast as our two fastest guys. It was amazing.

[kad]

Man, my throat started getting sore yesterday evening. This morning it's still sore, and slightly worse. I think it's just sinus drainage, but it sucks. This happened a while back, but it only lasted for a few days. I fought it back pretty well then, hopefully I can this time too. I'd hate to come down with allergies right now. I also pretty much screwed up yesterday evening with chips and salsa, and then again later on with 4 blueberry muffins. So much for cutting. I'll get over it. At least I did fine through my pwo meal. I also decided to stop the creatine for now and see if it has any effect on my weight or strength. I don't really think it will. I'll be fine as long as I can maintain my current lifts in the 4-6 rep range.

I also decided not to get any more ETS after I run out of this bottle, because the stuff is too expensive for my college budget. I'm trying to minimize the number of pills I'm taking right now. And the number of pill bottles on the shelf... it looks like a flippin supplement store, hehe. Along those lines, I'm looking to combine my MSM/Chondroitin Sulfate/Glucosamine Sulfate bottles from Kent into a single supplement that contains all three for roughly the same price. I'm looking at the TKE joint boost on bb.com, but I still have about half these bottles left, so plenty of time to think about that one. I pretty much want to get down to taking only a multivitamin, joint support, fish oil, dextrose and whey. (Edit: and CLA and ALA.)

[Guido]

I can't believe nobody has welcomed you with any . Let me be the first:

[Kiaran]

Another nice legs session I see. I feel you on waiting for a Squat rack. I want to beat every person that does curls in a cage....drives me bat sh!t. There should be a Lose Turn sequence or some sh!t for them the next time they go to use the rack. Just how many pills/drugs you taking right now? You really should cut it back to just a multivitamin, a B-complex and Whey if you can. That stuff gets really expensive. Drink lots of water with that Creatine and anything else you are taking, you don't wanna fry your kidneys.

[kad]

Guido - Thanks

Kiaran - I hear you on the expensive pills. Right now I'm finishing off some bottles of ETS and Thermocin, and I've got a tub of Creatine 500 and L-Glutamine waiting to be finished off. I'm going to keep taking the glutamine in my pwo shakes until I run out, but I'm saving the creatine for bulking later on.

I'm ditching the ETS, Thermocin, and L-glutamine when I'm out of them. I like the joint stack, so I'm sticking with it, but I'm getting something with everything combined next time. I'm narrowing my list down to multipro 32x, joint support, nitrean, fish oil caps, ALA, CLA, and B complex from here on out.

And just so I don't screw up again, I'm putting up my meal plan for today. Not that anyone else cares. Maybe this will help me stick to it or something.

meal 1: 1c (dry) oats, 2 scoops nitrean
meal 2: 1 boneless chicken breast, 2c salad mix, 2T olive oil, 4 fish oil caps
(workout)
meal 3 (pwo): 50g dextrose, 1 scoop nitrean (2:1 ratio, duh)
meal 4 (ppwo): 1 boneless chicken breast, 1/2c brown rice, 2c stir fry vegetables
meal 5: 8oz lean beef, can of spinach, 2T natty pb, 4 fish oil caps
meal 6: 2 scoops nitrean, 2T natty pb, 4 fish oil caps

totals: 2819 calories, 272g protein, 192g carbs, 107g fat (38.6% p / 27.24% c / 34.16% f)

Time for a chest/shoulders/triceps workout. I'm going to be too busy tomorrow and Saturday, so I had to get it in today.

[kad]

Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

BB flat bench
95 x 12
95 x 10
165 x 5
165 x 5
165 x 4

BB incline bench
135 x 6
135 x 6

DB side lateral raises
20's x 10
20's x 10

BB seated military press
65 x 10
95 x 6
115 x 1
105 x 6
105 x 4

BB close grip bench press
95 x 6
115 x 6
135 x 3 (failure)

Cable pushdowns
150 x 6
150 x 4

BB upright rows
65 x 6
85 x 6

Notes
My workout went great today, except for the fact I felt like crap the whole time since my allergies are flared up and my throat is sore. My strength is still improving on several lifts. I was able to rep 3 sets of 165 on the flat bench, which impressed me. I might have been able to go 6 reps on the first two with a spotter, but I stopped short since I didn't have one. I had a spot on the last set. I was stupid to attempt 135 on the CG bench without a spotter, because I almost dropped the bar on my jaw during the 4th rep. I should be able to get it next week though. My left shoulder was feeling healed and strong today, and they're both getting a lot more stable in the side lateral raises. I was slightly suprised I couldn't rep 115 more than once on the military press, since I did last week, but I had a spotter then too. I'm going to start doing standing military presses next week, and alternating dumbbells in for chest workouts too.

[Kiaran]

Great bench work. Keep pushing the limits. My only critique on the diet is maybe try to eat less fat and more carbs? I guess it isn't supposed to hurt, since it's omega fats and all, but just my 2 cents. Dextrose? Is that the appetite suppresent sh*t?

[kad]

Kiaran - Thanks. Yeah, I noticed that about my diet too. The carbs may be a little low, but I'm doing ok so far. The Thermocin is helping to suppress my appetite a little. Dextrose is actually a simple sugar that a lot of people take post workout in their shakes. Basically, it spikes your insulin and restores muscle glycogen stores after they've been depleted by a workout, and drives nutrients into the cells to kickstart the recovery process. I don't know if you already knew about that or not, but there you have it. There's a lot more that a good search could tell you than I can try to explain.

[kad]

Weekly Report

Last week's workouts were good overall. I'm maintaining my strength while cutting, which is a good thing. I need to do better keeping up with my diet, since that's what makes or breaks a cut. It's hard to be in college and not splurge through the week. Anyway, I'm taking a week off (maybe two) from lifting, because I've got some nagging injuries that are being slow to heal. My left hip flexor hurts whenever I bend over and stand up straight, and I pinched a nerve in the left side of my lower back (probably doing deads), so that side of my back goes numb if I sit on a hard surface for too long. Oh well. No pain, no gain. I'm going to keep up with my diet and cardio next week though. I'm switching to the rowing machine for cardio for a while, because I hate sitting on the exercise bike for 45 minutes. It's too boring.

[kad]

After two weeks of using Thermocin, I'm finally starting to see results. My body fat is slowly going away, and this is my week off too. It seems like every morning my stomach is a little tighter. I can't wait to get back to lifting and cardio next week. I'll get some pics on Saturday 10-1-05. I'd say I have about 8 weeks left before I reach my goal. It's taken me 6 months to get this far, and I can't wait.