ACutAbove06’s BodyBlog

Cardio per usual at 6am.  35 minutes on an empty stomach.  That’s what I call my wake up time.  I do my cardio and think about my day, my food and my next workout. 

Did arms today.  Started with biceps.  Did straight bar curls from 45lbs to 135lbs for 6.  Next was hammer curls across the chest went from 50lbs-65lbs for 10 each arm.  Next I did incline dumbbell curls going from 35lbs to 50lbs then drop setting back to 35.  Did triceps next.  Started wtih 3 sets of 30 rope pull-downs.  I like to really warm up my elbows and get the blood flowing before doing triceps.  I have a little tendonitis in both elbows and rope pull-downs definitely help me out a lot.  Next was decline skull-crushers.  Did 4 sets working up to 55lb dumbbells for 10 reps.  Then I did push-downs.  4 sets of 8 to 10 reps.  After that we finished with cable kickbacks.  3 set going from 40lbs to 60lbs.  10 reps per set.  Did 25 dips and called it a day. 

Felt really good today.  Energy was good.  Sweated my ass off though.  Could have something to do with the "summer" like weather we are currently having in Michigan.  Got all my meals in and I was feeling like I was looking much fuller today than in the previous 2 days.  Thursday is going to be my off day this week and also my moderately high carb day.  Will post more on Friday. 

Cardio at 6am on an empty stomach per usual.  Cardio is going great.  35 minutes seems to take an eternity though.  I can only imagine how it’s going to be when I have to do it for an hour. 

Yesterday has been my hardest diet day so far.  Let me tell you that this is about the worst time of year to diet.  Everyone seems to be throwing food at you and everyone is going out for drinks and there’s parties.  Geez!!  It’s very tempting, but I’m very determined to win this show in March.  I know there’s a few other guys out there with the same mentality and I’ll be damned if I’m going through all of this just to lose. 

Did back and abs today.  My back workout pretty much sucked.  Didn’t seem to have the strength I had a week ago.  Did some deadlifts, wide grip pull-downs, dumbbell rows off the rack up to 150lbs for 9, lat press-downs, weighted hyperextensions and finished with close grip seated rows.  The workout went well but I didn’t feel very strong.  I had a bit of a complex today and felt small.  The mirror wasn’t my bestfriend today.  LOL  I’m still weighing over 200lbs, but not by much.  My trainer keeps telling me to look at the big picture…..somedays that’s easier than others…..Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

Sunday was a normal day.  Did cardio first thing on an empty stomach for 35 minutes.  I felt pretty good all day.  My only drawback was I was craving carbs all day.  I made sure I got in my 3/4 c oatmeal and 8 oz sweet potato.  It really didn’t seem to be enough though.  Other than that everything is going great. 

 Monday was a high carb day.  Did cardio for 35 minutes first thing in the morning.  Monday I doubled all my carbs and added a scoop of waxy maize from ***********.com with each of my first 3 meals.  So it was like I carb depleted and then carb loaded.  When I got to the gym yesterday I was looking much fuller and felt great. My strength is still not what it was 2 weeks ago, but my stamina is definitely there. I was working chest with my training partner and we did a "you go, I go" thing.  That could have definitely affected my strength too.  I still put up good weights and pumped out some solid reps.  After 20 sets of chest, to include incline barbell, flat flyes, decline dumbbell, incline flyes(cable) and standing cable flyes I felt really good.  We finished with calves for about 6-8 sets to failure. 

We are getting in the habit of posing once we are done for about 15 minutes.  There are 3 of us and we critique the hell out of each other.  I think that is definitely going to help me when it comes time for March.  I’ll be posting more pics as the weeks end nears. 

Cardio first thing on an empty stomach for 30 min.  Tomorrow I’m doing cardio for 35 minutes a day.  Each week I will bump it up 5 minutes a session until I reach an hour.  Things are starting to go a lot better.  Seems like my strength is coming back.  That’s always good.  Getting between 6 and 8 hours of sleep a night right now.  When I get up first thing in the morning I’m ready to go. I rarely feel tired anymore.

Wednesdays are cardio only days.  Right now I’m on a 2 day on, 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off split.  On my off days I’m still doing cardio for 30 minutes first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  Feeling a lot better these days.  Weight is dropping this week but that is due to lack of carbs and lack of sodium.  Both of those make you retain water.  So due to that I’m holding less water and my weight is in the 199-201 range.

My trainer has me incorporating 2 high carb days on Monday and Thursday.  He made Monday a real high carb day and Thursday is a moderately high day.  Other than that everything is going very well.  I look forward to the next few weeks and seeing the changes my body goes through .

Cardio at 6am and then at 5pm it’s Back day.  Today strength was up a lot more than day 4.  I felt like I had more endurance.  Started off with a few sets of wide grip pull-ups and then proceeded to get into 6 sets of deadlifts.  Did some close grip rows, wide grip pull-downs, lat push-downs and finished with weighted hyper extensions.  Performed a lot of drop sets with everything but deadlifts. 

Since my diet started I get hungry very quick.  I feel like I’m either always very hungry or very thirsty.  I’m drinking about 2 gallons of water a day so I can’t imagine why I would be thirsty.  I know I’m hungry because I only eat carbs around my training.  I know I’ve dropped weight because of not eating that many carbs. Down to 201-205lbs. Looking leaner and less water retention.  The hardest part of this is the 9:30-11pm time.  That’s when I get really hungry!! 

4 Days in now.  I didn’t know how much calories and a lot of carbs really played into your strength and endurance….until yesterday.  Monday was my first workout since my diet began.  Needless to say it sucked.  I felt drained and fatigued very quickly.  Apparently there is a big difference from going to 3200 calories to 2000 calories and from 600g of carbs to 180g of carbs.  I’m really hoping my workout tonight is a little, no, a lot better!  The diet itself is going well.  My only problem is that im really craving salt.  I want a pickle like nobodys business!  LOL  I’m sticking to my diet 100% and will continue to do so for the next 15 1/2 weeks.  Cardio is going great.  Since I’m so tired from not eating enough calories and carbs I’m able to fall asleep very early at night.  When I do this I have no problem getting up at 5:45am to do cardio.

I will post more tomorrow and we’ll see if my workout today will be another disappointment or not.

Got up at 5:45am and was at the gym doing cardio by 6.  30 minutes seems like it takes forever.  I can’t imagine how it’s going to be when I’m doing it for an hour.  I’m definitely going to have to break it into 2 sessions.  The diet has been going well for the last few days.  I can see myself staying the hell away from chicken once this 16 weeks is over.  I think that I’m pretty much past eating for pleasure.  So far so good otherwise.  I’m curious to see how I’m going to do in the gym today now that my carbs have gone from 600 to 180 a day.  I’ll post tomorrow with updates.

Ok, here’s my diet.  According to my trainer, this diet is subject to change on a bi-weekly basis. 

Meal 1- 3/4c oats, 10 egg whites, 2tbsp flax meal 

Meal 2- 8oz chicken, broccoli, 15 almonds

Meal 3- 8oz chicken, broccoli, 15 almonds

Meal 4- 6oz chicken, 4oz sweet potato

Pre-workout - 2 scoops N.O. Shotgun

Post-workout - 1.5 scoops of Waxy Maize from ***********.com

20min later - 1 scoop whey protein from ***********.com

Meal 5- 6oz lean meat/ fish, 4oz sweet potato

Supplements - Mass Aminos, Ultra 40 - From Beverly Int., Multi-Vitamin - Mega Men from GNC.

I will begin recording my progress on Saturday 11/18. 

Well here it is. Starting this Saturday I will be 16 weeks out from the Novice Michigan contest.  My main reason for posting this is to track my own progress.  I’m always open for suggestions and critique.  Positive comments sure do make me feel a lot better though!  LOL  This is my first of "hopefully" many competitions to come.

Got with my trainer Jerry today and he gave me my diet and cardio for day 1 through day 14.  I guess I have to start somewhere.

It’s as follows…..

Cardio 7 days a week via treadmill.  We are starting me out at 30 minutes a day and adding 5 minutes a week until I get to an hour and then we will make adjustments as needed.  That shouldn’t be a problem.  Cardio is something I have always enjoyed.  In the Army it didn’t much matter if you liked it or not.  You did it anyways.  That’s kind of how I’m viewing this.

I will post my diet in the morning.