My knees are finally starting to feel better.  Ive been doing certain exercises just to strengthen the muscle around my knee and using the foam roller a lot.  I love the pain from the foam roller and I just bought a more stiff roller.  After a hot shower and warming up my body, I will use the roller to help out the knots and the tightness of the tendons.  So, my leg workout went as follows:

ATG squats 135x20 for 3 sets

straight legged deadlifts with DB's 60'sx20 for 2 sets

abductor 120x20

adductor 130x20

glute blaster 60x20 each leg

walking lunges 2 laps, about 40 steps per lap

one legged toe touches

I know it doesnt seem like much, but its a big improvement that my knee pain has been subsiding.  I also didnt want to put too much weight stress and conditioned legs always look good!  Plus, I have nice calves, so people assume I have nice quads.  haha

had a really good workout Sunday.  I had a headache when I woke up, but I got to the gym and was really cruisin!  A guy at the gym who competes in bodybuilding, he is about 6'3" 280, noticed that I have lost a lot of weight in the last few weeks.  I had some veins showing in my arms.  It gave me a good sense of encouragement because my pics are telling the whole story so far.  

The weights went up and the HIIT cardio went well on the stepmaster.  I will need to get a bottle of water for the stairmaster because its so dry right now, I was dying for water and my throat was dry.  Its ok though, at least I know I am giving it my all.  

I booked a vacation for the end of march, so I have to show up tight!  haha  My gf and I are really motivated to drop some pounds and show up to the beach like a couple who works out a lot.  She does triathlons and is always in good shape.  Also, I will be seeing family members at the end of March, so I better show up lean.

overall pretty good workout.  I felt like I could have done more work, but I wanted to stick to the plan and get to the cardio.  The weights felt a little lighter and I had a lot more energy.  for some reason when I got to the gym, I felt starving!  But I mentally pushed through it and made sure I had a protein shake as soon as I walked in the door from the gym.  

I dont know what is up with the bodyspace page, but I posted I am down 2 more pounds to 222 from 224, even though bodyspace says I had no change in weight.  But, another section shows I have a 2lb weight loss in 5 days.  Hopefully it is something that gets fixed.  I am down a total of 10 pounds so far in this competition.  It is hard to notice a lot because I look at myself in the mirror everyday.  I just have to keep pushing.  as long as the weights keep feeling lighter and my body weight keeps going down, I should be in good shape to do well in the competition by march 18th.

I woke up a little groggy, but once I got going to the gym, the intensity kicked up and I had a good workout.  I decided to start doing the stairmaster inbetween each body part.  Just 5 minutes so my upper body has some time to recover, but I dont cool down and I concentrate on the calves. 

My incline DB's felt good.  I got 110's for 5 on the 3rd set.

the standing calf raises went well.  I put 590 lbs on the hack squat station and do them one legged.  I had the veins coming out pretty well.  feelsgoodman.jpg

In reality, I think the numbers went up because my gym crush was there.  haha  She is this built girl who does kickboxing and MMA training.  She kicks ass.  I dont like the skinny girls, I like the tough girls. 

Ive had a few issues with internet connection, so I will be blogging more often throughout the competition now.  I tried blogging before, but the page would never fully submit and just go idle for an hour.  One of the more frustrating things in life in this fast paced world we live in.  

Issue #2, the scale at the gym is way off!  So, I went and bought a scale to start my progress properly.  I stepped on the scale yesterday and depending on the way I stood on it and leaned, it went from 208 - 232!!!  Thats a huge difference.  So, I will change my weight today and the digital scale shows 224.  I assume the best way is to stick to one scale and see how it goes from there.  So, it will show I made 0 progress in 2 weeks, but I know I have because my dress pants I wore to work yesterday were falling off of me.  I will need to go shopping at the end of the contest for new clothes.  Until then, I will look like Im wearing a tent!  haha

I totally fell off the wagon.  I was doing really well with my new diet and was feeling great after 1 week!  Until new years eve.  I guess I didnt eat enough, but I got to my friends condo and it was so hot inside that I was sweating bullets.  Then my blood sugar dropped fast.  I started shaking violently.  I tore off my sweater, I had a button down underneath, and had to push people out of the way to get to some carbs and water.  I chowed like 10 sugar cookies and drank 2 tall glasses of ice cold water.  I had to stand outside in 25 degree weather for about 30 minutes just to cool down and stop sweating.  it was horrible.  My girlfriend said she wanted to take me to the hospital because she had never seen me look so sick and pale.  I continued to eat not so great through the night because I felt like my body was shutting down.  I dont think I ate enough carbs that day.  I did have 4 meals that day, so I dont know why I crashed so hard.  So, now its back to the diet and its time to hit it hard, just need to balance the carbs better I guess.

I hate that I fell off the wagon and I feel like I took away a week in a contest that the smallest margin of error will lose!  So, I guess I have one less week than everyone else.

weighed myself this morning when I got to the gym, 225.  not as bad as I thought.  I also took my bodyfat % and it showed 20%.  I thought it was a little higher, but maybe that is because of water retention.  Here are some goals for the end of the 12 week challenge.

Weight - anywhere between 200-205, looking lean.

arms - get my arms to about 17"

abs - visible, at least a solid 4 pack

swimming - 25 minutes nonstop

biking - 30 minutes at 13 level intensity, i believe it is out of 20 on the bike.

running - 90% effort at a 5k.

more visible veins in my triceps and calves.

That should do it.  I am going on a spring break trip with my gf to visit family in california and it would be nice to show up lean and mean!

swim - 20 minutes

bike - 15 minutes

150  crunches

150 oblique twists

20 leg raises

Today is the day I start my transformation challenge.  Im excited because I know I have the tools and the knowledge to get to my goal.  I know I have a great chance of winning, even though I have already been working out.  Here is the breakdown of my routine:

sunday - swim, bike, run, abs

Monday - morning push hypertrophy workout

Tuesday - morning pull hypertrophy workout, evening cardio

Wednesday - Legs conditioning workout, abs

Thursday - morning push strength and power workout

Friday - evening pull strength and power workout

Saturday - rest

Thats it!  It is basically the layne norton PHAT workout, but adjusted to my goals and injury issues.  That is why I do just high rep conditioning for my legs.  Something better than nothing!

definitely worn out after this workout!  So tired, I couldnt manage to do cardio. 

3 sets of deadlifts 225x10

wide pulldowns 3 sts 180x12

spider curls

35x12 for 3 sets

standing db curls

35x10 for 3 sets

rear delt flye

160x12 for 3 sets

various ab exercises

shrugs

450x15 for 3 sets

just mentally cashed.  rough day at work and the deadlifts really took it out of me.  especially going for 10 reps. 

It is frustrating how i am getting more vascular all over my body.  my weight is down 20 pounds since I started the competition, i am getting stronger, and my stomach seems like it has not reduced one ounce.  I guess I will never have abs.  just not in the genetics.  but, I gotta keep going to see what happens.

my stomach has been killing me for some reason.  I think it was some bad food I ate over the weekend for V-Day.  Thats what I get for going a little nuts with the diet!  Also, havent been able to post because my roommate got a virus on my comp, but its fixed and that is all that matters!

I had a good back workout sunday and a good chest workout tuesday.  Going to do some cardio thursday morning.  The diet has been good.  I have added a few more calories a day, but mainly just trying to concentrate on eating high protein meals.

I feel like I will have a much better shape to my body when the 12 weeks are done.

pretty good workout.  I was tired from going out late saturday for a friends birthday.  Had a few beers, felt good...  I had decent energy for the gym, but it was a weird day weather wise.  

superset wide chest presses with wide pushups

superset incline smith presses with close grip push ups

angled calf raises (calves are still super sore from last workout!)

machine shoulder press drop set

side raises drop set

angled calf raises

straight push downs drop set

machine tricep press drop set

15 minutes on elliptical cross trainer

Today, I was super tired when I woke up. probably because yesterday I had very little to eat because i just was not hungry. 3 small meals. well, pretty good workout and a tiring time on the elliptical.  here we go!

drop set of narrow grip pulldowns

drop set of wide grip pulldowns

drop set of rear delt flyes

drop set of DB curls

drop set of machine curls

20 minutes on the elliptical, level 13 at 13 height

My body was on fire today! I was sweating so hard! Not that there is anyhting wrong with that. I dont care if I sweat like a pig, it was my day off. So,here we go!

Eats

4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, glass of chocolate milk.

scoop of PB, scoop of whey and glass of lowfat milk.

bowl of oatmeal, scoop of whey and scoop of PB.

scoop of whey and scoop of masstech.

handful of pretzels with cream cheese and 10oz of lean steak.

workout

triple drop set of machine bench press(2)

triple drop set of machine flye(2)

triple drop set of angled calf raises (2)

triple drop set of machine shoulder press (2)

triple drop set of standing calf raises

triple drop set of tricep pressdowns (2)

20 minutes of HIIT on a treadmill

felt good today.  Worn out and it was tough cleaning my condo.  haha