JD_Johannes’s BodyBlog

I’ve been dieting along with my friend Sarah as she prepares for another season of figure contests and I had to travel east this past weekend to give a talk at a conference and schmooze with my cronies.

I planned ahead.  Brought a tub of whey and oats.  There was a grocery store a couple blocks away so I could get some meat.  The hotel had a little gym so I could get a little workout in.

That was the easy part.  I’m used to that.  When I fly I bring some shakers with whey powder in them in carry-on–just add water and I have a snack.  I just avoid carbs and sugars like usual.

What threw me off this trip was my connecting flight home was cancelled and I was stuck at a Holiday Inn Express.  So, I found a grocery store a mile away, hoofed down there, got some more whey and some deli meat and stayed pretty close to the eating plan.

Of course all the salty deli meat has me holding water like a camel, but salt takes care of itself.

After a 30 trip that should have been just 6 hours I felt pretty crappy, but went to the gym and got in a lift this afternoon.  And after a few normal meals I’m feeling almost all better.

On April 25th 2008 I looked like this and weighed 195 pounds in the afternoon.

On April 17th 2009, just a few days ago, I weighed 210 pounds and look like this.

Last year, I used to weigh myself at the gym in the afteroon on a balance scale.  But, the balance scale gone, so now I weigh myself with a digital bathroom scale in the morning.  The weight difference between morning and afternoon is about five pounds.

Does that mean in one year I have put on about 20 pounds of muscle?  Yes and no.  You have to understand how I got to 195 pounds in April of 2008 first, then the 20 pounds of “muscle” will make more sense.

I have spent the better part of the last four years running around Iraq and Afghanistan with a TV camera on my shoulder.

During that time I used an old fashioned power/mass workout combined with some easy distance running and a few sprints to stay in good enough shape to keep up Marines, Paratroopers and a few Spec Ops types.

I was strong and in good enough shape, but I was weighing 240+ pounds.

The best way to describe me was Heavy Duty.  I was the guy with 19 inch arms, a 55 inch chest and a 40 inch waist.  I could bench 365 for a triple and shoulder press 125 pound dumbbells.

But dragging all that weight around the war zones sucked.

When I got back from a long trip in the Summer of 2007, I decided to get the weight off.  I came up with what I thought was a good diet and cardio program and dove in.

But it didn’t accomplish anything.

I made another short hop to the war in the late Summer of 2007 and when I got back, I went to work editing a documentary trilogy about Iraq.

For a change of scenery, I moved into a small condo in Miami owned by a buddy of mine from Iraq whose family did some slum lording.

While in Miami I fell in with the wrong crowd–a crazy group of female bodybuilders.

I already knew how build size and strength, they taught me a knew level of intensity and how to really think about what I ate.

When I left Miami, I continued to dial in on my eating.  But after two months and 10 pounds of fat lost, I got stuck.

After a visit to my doctor and an edoncrinologist I discovered I am mildly hypo-thyroid and have a form of insulin resistence.  My body prefers to turn carbs and sugars into fat, with only a brief pit-stop in the muscles as glycogen.

So, I had to diet even harder.  It was months of low carb cycles, ketogenic cycles and way too much cardio.

But, by April of 2008 I was down to 195 pounds and relatively lean.

Then I went to Iraq again.

When I got back in the Summer of 2008, I worked the system to build myself back up, got on my base eating plan and changed my cardio.

My friends Nita Marquez and Glen & Lisa Krog had me start doing more sprints and only occasional distance running.  When I started doing sprints I got leaner and actually built up a bit of muscle and strength.

I dialed in my eating and training and went from this to this.

Then I went to Iraq again.

When I got home I spent a few months doing my system, which is detailed in my "Fit for Combat" training journal.  It is nothing fancy, but it works for me.

My good friend Sarah is getting ready for a figure show later this Summer, so I have been gradually reducing and rotating my carbs and losing a few pounds of fat.

The amount of muscle I have now is not new for me.  I had even more muscle when I was "Heavy Duty" or maybe I was just a little stronger.

I don’t think I put on 20 pounds of new muscle in a year.  I think I just restored some of the muscle that had been burned off during the long diet and excessive cardio.  Restoring is a lot different than building brand new.

My training system is very old fashioned.  I log all my workouts and try to get more reps or move more weight every week.

I measure my food to the gram.  The precision is very important.

I approach all this very systematically.  Everything is quantified and the variables are controlled.

Because I am not naturally lean or even naturally muscular, I have to dial in on what works for me making gradual adjustments and measuring their effectiveness.

Through this process I have learned there is no such thing as a one-size fits all program.  There are some physiological laws like overload and caloric underload and ketosis.

But beyond that it is tracking, precision eating and careful experimentation to find what works specifically for you.

OK…so I only got 335 Lbs. for 6 reps on Friday.  The previous week I had gotten 8 reps on the first set.

I was lower on carbs than I had been.  A friend is getting ready for a figure show this summer I am "dieting" along with her.

It may have also been an "off" day things like that happen.  So, I’ll try again this Friday and see if it was an anomaly or if I’ve hit my limit on barbell bench or it could be the reduced glycogen.

I warm up with the bar, then a few reps with 225, then a double at 275 before I load up 335.  Maybe a longer break after 275?

There are a lot of variables at play.  But, if it is time for me to move on to another exercise, I’ll move on.

My gym got a bunch of new equipment, everything from benches and racks to machines.

I have no idea why they did it.  The new racks and benches look cool and hi-tech, but are crap.  The machines, and I use machines a lot because my body has a few parts that don’t work so well anymore, are junk and don’t have enough weight on the plates.

I fully understand that the business model for most ‘fitness centers’ is to get a person in the door, put the hard sale on them, close the sale hard and fast, get a debit card number and have the new member sign on the dotted line then collect $19 bucks a month and hope the customer never shows up.

But I’m the guy who pays cash for a year or two in advance.  I show up five days a week and wear out the equipment using lots of weight.

Some of the big chains really don’t want serious lifters as members, which is why the dumbbells only go up to 80 pounds at most of them.  Serious lifters also are bad for ‘add ons’ like computerized training programs and salesmen masquerading as personal trainers.

Serious lifters destroy the illusion they are selling.

The gym I work out at was a real gym for a while, now they have multiple branches and it is becoming a fitness center.  That is great for the ownership group and more power to them for making money.  But not so great for the few serious lifters.

In a large market, say Phoenix, a fitness center can churn and earn because there are millions of potential resolutioneers who will hand over the debit card and never show up.  In a medium market where I live, there is a limited pool to churn through.  But the serious lifters are bread and butter–$200 a year for 20 to 30 years.

I’ve done the math and I can build a pretty good power gym for myself, but since my office is in my home, I really do like going to the gym to get out of the house.

If I open up a real office again, I’ll probably set up a gym at home and weld together some safety racks so I can do bench to failure without crushing myself.

One of the ways I track progress is by calculating the lean tissue diameter of my upper arm.  It is a decent way to quantify gains.

By the skinfold calipers, the fat thickness on my upper arm is 1.9mm

By the measuring tape my flexed bicep is 44.6cm or 446mm.

Now I use pi to determine the lean tissue diameter of my upper arm to see if I am building muscle.
So, the circumference is 446mm.  I divide that by pi which is 3.14 which yields a diameter of 142.03.

Now, I subtract the mm of fat thickness, 1.9, which results in 140.13mm.

I call 140.13 my lean tissue diameter.  I use this number over time to quantify whether I am building muscle or not.  At the stage I’m at, the gains are measured in milimeters per year.

Ok, 335 lbs for 7 reps on flat barbell bench.  I was a little low on carbs today, so the velocity was down a bit.

The zag is moving up on the rep max chart, still off my ‘high’ but going from working with 315 to 335 is a pretty good jump up.

Both are down a little this week because I went up in weight.

Friday I did bench with 335 and got 6 reps on the first set.  Not to bad, but nothing stellar.

Today on curls I did 160 for 7 reps.

I haven’t been on an accurate scale in a while but "feel" like 215.  I’ll have to do a caliper test late next week and see where I’m really at in terms of lean muscle diameter.

Last week I was on the road shooting segments for a TV pilot.

I didn’t go totally off the eating plan, but my carbs were up.  I got back on my normal eating Sunday and had the usual headache.

I’ve gotten to the point I don’t mind the headache that much because I know what it means.

The brain loves carbs and sugars and will adapt up to increased carbs.  When they are reduced, it gets angry.  But then it adapts back down again.

I got 315 for 10 reps today.  Which puts my rep max at 421 Lbs. according to the calculator.

On the scale at the gym I weighed in at 210 pounds.  Not too shabby.

I am curious where I will plateau at.  I’m still not into uncharted territory.  I was about this strong on bench a couple years ago and just started benching again in December.

When I get above 350 for a few reps I’ll be in uncharted territory for me.

Yesterday I got 7 reps with 315 pounds on my first set of barbell flat bench.

The line graph on the rep max chart now looks totally absurd.

Last week I only got 5 reps with 315.  Next week I hope I’ll get even more.  But then I will increase the weight and the reps will go down bringing the calculated rep max down.

It could wind up being the most absurd looking chart ever.