These past couple months I have still been able to do db bicep curls, but not with the same amount of weight as I used to..the wrist would act up if I tried to go too heavy…and I would "test" the wrist weekly as I attempted barbell curls but every week would come to the same conclusion: NOPE, not happenin!..the wrist would hurt like I was injuring it all over again…so I’d put the barbell back in frustration wondering when and if I would ever be able to do my barbell curls again :(…

Because of the limited range of motion my bicep workouts have pretty much just been doing db drop sets to failure on the day I work my back at the end of the workout…I felt like my biceps were getting a good workout doing the back exercises so I didn’t worry about them too much…but then I started to notice that my bicep vein I was so proud of had stopped popping out…and that was something I was so glad to see developing back when I started out..it was a real sign of progress to me…so I’ve just been waiting for my wrist to heal so I could get that vein popping again!!

So this week I didn’t do any extra bicep work after my back workout, and even gave them a few days to recover before working them on their own yesterday hoping to get them progressing again…well, not totally on their own, I also did legs yesterday…and as usual, I attempted a bb curl with a 25lb and…what?…no pain?…not even a little twinge of wrist pain?…get out!…no way, I must be dreaming this…yep, the wrist was ok to do bb curls again!!!  FINALLY!! yay..that made me so happy

It made me so happy that I overdid it…I alternated between leg/bicep sets and everything was going good…I did bb curls, standing cable curls, and bicep isolation db curls…by the time I got to the db isolation curls, I had already done enough and I should have stopped…as I was finishing up and doing drop sets to failure, I noticed that instead of feeling the burn, I wasn’t feeling much at all..by the time I got down to 6lb db’s I felt like there was no muscle in my bicep, the exercise didn’t burn as it usually did and I didn’t feel any pump in it at all…when I got home I checked out my biceps, no usual pump from the workout and they looked smaller…

*Sigh* Oh well, another lesson in my fitness journey : the importance of knowing when to stop!

So the moral of the story is:  DO your HIIT!!

CHest 

Incline smith 3x

Hammer Chest machine  3x

Cable Crossover 2x

DB flyes 2x

Machine Flye 2x

Flat db press 2x

Rested 1-1.5 mins between sets

Back

Pullups 3x

Pulldown machine 3x

DB rows 2x

Seated cable row 2x SUperset with close grip lat pulldown 2x

Bent over row 2x

I can really feel this one!…Haven’t ever worked back and chest together in the same day and it exhausted me…no way could I consider cardio after this.  A change is what I need..feel like I am plateauing, not really gaining much muscle now and I know it’s because I need to up my efforts/workout intensity if I want progress to continue.

DIet has been no bueno lately …today I had a little chat with myself and decided it’s time to RE-FOCUS and get my head back in the game…

it’s just 4 exercises…

Side lat raises 4 sets 15, 12, 8, 6 to pre-fatigue the shoulders, then

4 supersets of DB presses and upright rows

4 sets lying side laterals with elbow bent…but by the time I finished my shoulders were burning…definitely shocked them!

**A guy in the gym was kinda staring at me as I worked out and finally came over to ask "Are you a bodybuilder?"..I said, "No", and he said, "Oh, I was just wondering because you look kinda cut up"….

Oh my what a compliment!! It made my day

But now I feel like I’m ready to get a little more structured and want to get these last 10 or 12  oh who am I kidding probably 15 lbs gone so I can move into Phase II–possibly a little “bulk” phase…which is exciting to me because for this past year I have been trying to build muscle while I cut fat, which is frustrating, when I start losing weight I get freaked out when I look in the mirror and it seems I am losing muscle too, and then I stop trying so hard to lose weight…but I am not where I want to be bodyfat or definition wise…so now I feel like I just need to go for it, and as long as I keep the diet numbers (protein, carbs, etc) right, then I will be ok and whatever muscle I lose I can put back on…what has me excited about a bulk phase is that whenever I have cut back on the cardio, I have noticed much faster muscle gains…it’s really unbelievable how fast they can grow…but I have had to burn them away with all the cardio trying to make up for my bad diet decisions to keep from gaining fat back!!!

So anyways, I still have a lot to learn, I know I can’t learn everything in a year (still can’t believe it’s already been a year that I’ve been lifting weights!) ..but I was wondering what the best carb cycling plans out there are..I’ve heard of doing 3 days low carb then one high, then 3 medium…or one day you have carbs with breakfast, lunch and dinner, then the next day only breakfast, then the next day with breakfast and lunch only, etc…I saw in the current Oxygen mag that a low carb day should be half your bodyweight, a medium day would be = to your bodyweight and high day would be 2x your bodyweight -3…but to me these amounts seem a little high…anyways, that’s where you come in..what carb cycling plan works best for you?…are there other plans that work better than the ones I’ve mentioned?  I would love to hear any input or suggestions on this!

Went up in weight on squats and leg presses and was able to do more reps…really surprised myself and now I’m considering only doing legs every other week!! 

*went up in weight each set

seated military press (behind head) 12, 10,8,6

arnold presses 12, 10, 8, 6

standing side lats 15, 12, 10, 8

upright row 12, 10, 8, 6

to finish, a superset with:

seated bent over lats 4x 10 & standing front raises 10, 8, 6, 4

dips (assisted)-3 sets 10-15

incline chest flyes 3 x15  superset w/ bodyweight dips using bench to failure

flat bench w db 3×15 

lying db tri extension 3×15 

flat chest flyes 3×15

triple set w/ rope pushdowns, decline pushups (to failure–not many reps…arms were pooped at this point), cable chest flyes

Decided to skip the bench pressing today, I have been consistently doing it for some time now..

ALso I have changed my rep range…last week actually is when I started doing it, instead of doing 6-8, I have started doing 12-15 reps…I already felt the effect of the "shock to the system" in my back after one workout–I was sore like when I first started a year ago!!!

The whole idea of it has always seemed crazy to me…your body has had NO fuel for 10 hours or so, and then you want to go and push it further by making it do cardio…seems like your blood sugar and energy would be too low to get much out of it without eating first…but according to some "ripped" bodies around this site, it is a secret trick to burn more fat…

Despite that, I never wanted to try it because I always believed you are supposed to EAT soon after waking to keep the metabolism from slowing down..but out of curiousity I decided to try it out today.  Well, I didn’t do it on a completely empty stomach, I had some SUperpump250 or I wouldn’t have gotten myself out the door without eating!

I was able to run for 40 mins, and I didn’t pass out!…now lets see if this way works better!