ARCochran’s BodyBlog

   This is by far the most arduous semester I have ever had to endure.  I have a lot on my plate so to speak.  I am not trying to complain by any means, but rather I am just enlightening any readers as to why I have been relatively silent on Bodyspace the past couple of months.  Currently, I am taking Fourteen hours of classes that include Genetics, Physics II, Vertebrate Physiology, and Surgical Procedures in Biomedical Sciences.  Those courses alone present enough work to keep one quite busy day to day.  I have an extra burden however, I have the MCAT bearing down on me in a few weeks.  I have been studying day in and day out for classes and the MCAT.  I used to get eight hours of sleep per night and was well rested.  These days, I average around 5-6 hours per night.  This high stress time in my life, along with mild sleep deprevation, have prevented me from gaining the strength and muscle that I have desired over the past couple of months.  Currently, the University of Georgia is on spring break and I am sitting at my desk all day long studying.  I have not decided if I am jealous yet or not though.  As difficult as the MCAT preparation and attempting to maintain a high GPA are, I cannot complain much, because I will be a Doctor one day.

I am at home for the Christmas break.  My home is only about 20 minutes from my place at school, so I could stay there and come home occasionally if I wanted.  This year I decided to just come home over the break.  I had an exhausting semester and I have a more exhausting one coming up, so home sounded like a good option at this point.  The worst part about being home is the food.  My family has health conscious food low on their priority list.  Being from Georgia, they like everything a little on the fatty side or the sweet one.  I used to eat like them and then figured out that it made me fat.  My parents have been fairly supportive of my dietary changes although they do not wish to abide by them. 

Here’s my dilemma.  In the mornings, I get up, go to the gym, go to the Hospital to shadow a surgeon, and then I get home around lunch time.  I have nothing to do after about 2pm everyday.  The surgeries are done for the day and all I have to do is sit at home.  There is bad food all over the house.  I have found myself slipping a time or two and eating some food that I would rather not be in the same room as.  I have only cheated on my strict diet a couple of times since I have been home, but that is too much for me.  I am usually a strong willed person, but the ubiquitous temptation has been too much for me the past two days.  Hopefully I will stay strong the rest of the time.  I suppose the monotany of my diet is what has gotten to me. 

 I will be strong throughout the rest of the break!!!!

    It never fails.  My lovely science teachers here at the University of Georgia have done their best to stress me out.  I don’t know what it is, but my tests always fall into the same week.  Twice this semester I have had four tests within five days.  For those of you reading this, I am not taking any candy classes, these are hardcore Pre-Med classes.  My grades thus far have all been high A’s and that is certainly not of my doing, but rather a blessing from God.  Honestly though, the two biggest downsides to having my tests clumped together like that are stress and stress induced immune suppression.  Stress seems to be the root of my problems though.  When I am stressed, my lifts just plain suck.  I cannot lift hard and I have no strength.  On top of poor lifting, I usually experience some immune suppression and consequently experience some type of respiratory illness.  I just dont know what I should do.  All of my finals are the second week of December and guess what; they are all within two days.  Fortunately, finals are my least stressful time.  My grades have been high enough throughout the semester that I can really just turn on cruise control during finals.  Any suggestions on how to deal with the stress induced sickness are welcome. 

Coughing and Sneezing,

                      
          Adam

Yesterday my only class was cancelled.  When free days like that come along, I do what any other nerdy student does, I studied.  I spent all day doing various things in various subjects.  By 5pm I was sick and tired of looking at notes, chemical structures, and metabolic pathways.  On a whim, I decided to attempt to make my own protein bar.  I was really sick and tired of taking the smelly old shaker bottle to class with some powder in it, so I need a good portable meal.  Being a college student on the meal plan and living in a dormitory, I dont have a lot of ingredients on hand.  All I had was some rolled oats, whey, splenda, skim milk, and natural peanut butter.  I figured will all of those things, I would be able to make a decent bar that would stick together.  After a little playing around, I did it.  I made a great tasting protein bar, that is stable at room temperature and is very nutritionally stable.  If you want the ingredient measurements and nutritional values, then PM me.  The only problem I can think of is that the whey I used might be heat labile.  Im investigating further on this one.  I’m very happy with my creation though.  I have a good meal replacement bar to carry to class.

It all began a few weeks ago.  I was doing straight leg dead lifts and I was trying to push myself to get as full of an extension as possible.  During one of my sets, I felt a an odd stretch in my right Hamstring.  It did not hurt at first, but began to later in the day.  I decided to take two weeks off in terms of hamstring exercises.  After two weeks of stretching and rest, I decided to get back into things with regular dead lifts.  The first week, dead lifts went well and there was no pain. Last week on the other hand, gave me the same stretching feeling that I got the last time.  Being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to give it another week and try deadlifts once more.  Bad Idea!!!  This week the pain was intense and I wanted to just lay down on the floor and die.  With my new found pain, I decided that a visit to the Doctor was in order.  I arrived at the Doctor’s office this morning and immediately upon reading my chart and seeing the six inch vertical bruise on my hamstring, he told me that I had torn my hamstring slightly.  I knew this was not good news.  The first thing that came to my mind was, "I have my first competition in August and I need to do my deadlifts."  Before I could express my concern, the Doctor saw the expression on my face and told me that I could do deadlifts again in six weeks.  Six weeks is a long time to lay off and exercise, but it could have been much worse.  On the bright side, he is allowing me to continue doing squats.  I suppose that’s a fair compensation.  So long deadlifts, I’ll see you in late December.

       Well, I did it, I decided that I would compete.  I would say that it is all thanks to several of the bodyspace members who have been very encouraging and helpful.  Numerous bodyspace members have repeatedly told me that I have "a good base".  I suppose this is a good thing.  I don’t want a good base.  I want a great body.  With that in mind, I began talking to a friend on this site about how to get a great body, the body I would need to compete.  I gave him the rundown of my diet and lifting program and he told me I was on track.  There was one problem though.  He said that I needed to add about twenty pounds and set a date for the competition.  I picked the OCB Intra Coastal Natural in August of 2007.  With the general time frame established, I figured out that I need to gain roughly one pound per week until late April to reach my goal.  I began immediately piling my plates higher in the dining halls and so far I have gained a couple pounds.  The scary part is seeing the definition getting hazy.  So here I am.  I have the guidance of a seasoned Bodybuilder, the proper diet, the proper exercise, and the proper motivation.  What will I look like in April; and better yet, what will I look like in early August?  It’s a very strange thing to realize that I will actually be competing for the first time and from that point on I will be able to call myself a bodybuilder.  That’s an amazing feeling.  I cannot wait to hit the stage.

I recently recieved some advice from some who I would say is a seasoned Bodybuilder.  He told me to make some modifications to my diet and to my workout routine.  I ate healthy before, but it may not have been the best diet plan for me.  My workout was also not the best either.  I was doing a five day/week mass building routine that works well for beginners I suppose.  I was able to put on a solid 20lbs(roughly 10Kg) in a little under a year.  Then I came to a point where I was not getting any bigger and I was not getting any stronger.  I delt with this frustration for nearly a year and then decided to ask people in one of the many forums at the BBing.com site.  I was met with numerous replies telling me that I needed to change my workout to a strength training program.  Specifically, the Westside for Skinny Bas***** routine.  So I did.  I’ve been on the workout for a week now.  Obviously, I cannot give any kind of legitimate update because I have not been doing it long enough to see the results.  With the large amount of compelling evidence I found online, I feel like this workout will certainly help me reach my mass and strength goals.  On another note, I did change my diet and am eating lots of protein, lots of good carbs, and taking my EFA’s.  I instituted the dietary change two weeks ago, and I must say that the results have been great.  I have actually leaned up and gotten a bit stronger.  I will continue to keep my strict diet and exercise routines for an undermined period.  I will post progress pictures in December to see how roughly 8-10 weeks will change me.  So the questions still remains to be answered, will the new workout and new diet result in a new Adam?  We will see.  There’s a link to my training journal in my body space under my forum signature.  Check out my progress and leave me some feedback.

I recently got my diet extemely clean.  I eat as clean as possible.  I am eating enough to go anabolic.  I was advised by a friend to cut out the cardio for a while or at least cut back on it severly.  I am not sure if this is a good idea, but I am giving it a shot.  I was running three to four days per week for 20-25 minutes.  No, it’s not a heavy cardio regimen by any means, but it serves it purpose.  I stay fairly lean running like that and being kind of lax with my diet.  The true test of nutrition will come now that the cardio has been minimized.  Will I get fat or will I put on muscle quickly enough to minimize fat gains?  I don’t know but my progress pictures in 5 weeks will tell the tale.  Wish me luck.

I eat clean all week long.  The closest thing to unhealthy that I have would probably be ketchup with my grilled chicken or maybe an extra peice of fruit.  I go through the week with no real cravings for anything "bad", but when the weekend gets here I want bread and sweets.  Usually on sunday I let loose.  I don’t eat a lot in the morning at breakfast or even lunch because I am on the UGA meal plan (which is completely awesome).  On sunday night, the dining hall is closed and we are on our own for dinner.  I usually use this as a cheat meal.  I’ll go eat mexican or something like that.  I will eat so much that I am completely full.  That was just the friendly part of cheat day though.  The next day is where the reprocussions appear.  Carb bloat!  I get such a terrible carb bloat and it does not go away until about the middle of the week.  So my definition is shot for a while and then I look decent for a couple days.  After a few days of narcicistic satisfaction, the process begins again.  I really don’t understand why I crave the cheat day and how to get over it because it makes my body look horrible.  What to do….What to do?