ChiMike’s BodyBlog

Two unrelated scramblings today.  First, I read that at least two whole eggs and two egg whites a day correlates strongly with success in weight gain, so for the last few days I’ve been mixing them up first thing in the morning (with a little salsa for flavor) - easy prep tip . . . microwave . . . 1:40 and nice, fluffy eggs are done, could hardly be easier.  I didn’t change much else in my diet in any drastic manner and seem to have broken the 175 lb. plateu that I had been at for a while, so maybe there’s something to it.

Second, I decided to scramble up the set/reps that I’ve been doing for calves (forearms too, but today was back/calves) and have gone for closer to 20 reps on a few sets and then added a big set at the end standing on the Smith Machine (heaviest weight I can manage for 20 reps, drop about 20%, 20 more reps, drop about 20%, 20 more reps, etc. — no rest until I hit 100 reps).  By the end I’m struggling to lift my bodyweight and my calves feel deeply blasted in a way that other workout’s haven’t achieved.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to see results, but it sure feels like it, so I’m going to roll with this one for a while.

For any Zeppelin fans out there, hopefully I’ll still be working out in 9 nine years and can do a similar post (maybe even with music by then!).  It was roughly a year ago that I started lifting more regularly and more seriously.  I was not as disciplined about working out and my diet then as I am now, but thoughts of weight gain goals and cleaning up my diet were percolating.

So, how has the year progressed?  Over all I’m pretty happy.  In terms of lifting, I’ve definitely expanded my repoirtiore and have a good idea now of how to lift to achieve the goals that I want.  In terms of diet, I’m  *a lot* more educated about how to eat to get where I want to be, whether bulking or cutting, and whether the scale is going up or down, overall, everything that’s going into my body is much, much healthier than it used to be.

As far as the numbers go, this time last year, I weighed about 10 pounds less and my body fat was around 12.9%.  Around 9 months ago (before I had really focused in on bulking), bf had dropeped to about 8.8%.  Up until December, I worked out generally to get stronger and bigger, but didn’t have specific goals or a plan in mind.  Over the last few months, since I joined BB, everything I’ve done has been with a purpose (thanks to everyone who contributes here, because everyone’s shared experiences has helped provide me with some direction).  My bf has gone up from my low to about 12.2%, but that seems sort of inevitable when bulking.  The good news is that compared to a year ago, my bf is a bit lower and I’m about 10 pounds heavier, so I’ve got a least 10 lbs of lean mass to show for that last year’s effort.  Looking forward to putting on those last few pounds and then cutting to see what happens.

I have been trying to bullk from high 160’s to 180 for a while and had stalled out at about 175.  With some props to JitWit and her friend Victor Dean, I’m glad to say that I seem to be back on track.  Turns out that I had somewhat too eagerly followed advice that a 40/40/20 diet was the be-all-end-all, and with some help from Jean and Vic, I’ve ratcheted up the fat (good fat!) a little bit (probably closer to 35/35/30 now) and have finally broken 175 at my morning weigh-in.  Now the trick will be to keep lifting hard and not go overboard packing on the pounds.  I’m hoping to gradually get up to 180 over the next 4-6 weeks.  Assuming all goes as planned, I’m hoping to have a good progress pic comparing the pre-bulking me at about 170 and the post-bulking/cutting me at 170+?

I would welcome comments from anyone willing to share experience with bulking/cutting in terms of how much, how often, how fast, expectations, etc.

Recently, I have felt like I have stalled out on my leg workouts.  I had been adding weight and griding out sets, but not feeling like I was getting anywhere.  I decided I needed to change things up a bit.  On my first set of each exercise today, I dropped a fair amount of weight and focused on how the area I was tagerting felt throughout the entire movement, which was made much easier by the fact that I wasn’t putting quite so much effort into just moving and controlling the weight (for example with squats).  I gradually ramped up the weight on each subsequent set, but made sure I was engaging each group in a way that felt right . . . full, deep squats; leg presses that started really low and compact; lunges that kept the tension in my glutes and hamstrings rather than up my my knees, etc.  Overall, I had less weight loaded up on my various sets than I have in a while, but I felt (and am still feeling) everything so much more.  I’ve hobbling around since I got out of the gym, and it feels great.  So, everyone once in a while, don’t worry so much about how much weight you’re loading up for each exercise and go light enough so that you can really focus on how you are moving the weight that’s there.  If I’m this drained, something must have gone right!!