Evolution

I am half done week 8 of the daily video trainer and I’m begining to plateau. I ‘ve been stuck at 184 for around three weeks now. calories are already pretty low so I don’t want to cut them any more and lose muscle…. time to up the intensity during cardio, I guess….. I’m also going to lighten the weight I use and up the reps a little. I feel I’ve slipped back into bad habits and am jeoprodizing proper form for lbs. lifted

…I’m getting bored of this routine, am feeling small/weak, and need to work slowing my self expectations, while keeping determines and dedicated nutrionally. Back to my usual problem of wanting to be bigger/stronger but first need to lose BF……

mind / muscle connection, form, and speed of reps still need to be addressed as I feel this is a big part of my problem… I don’t "feel" a pump after working a body part…cant physically do another rep but arms don’t feel full or pumped…

Jex

I cant seem to grow and think it may be because of a lack of mind/muscle connection. for instance when doing skullz my tris barely feel it, or at the end of back/tri day  my muscles aren’t feeling it only my energy levels are down to where I cant do any more work… I cant seem to get the pump I need.

I’ve been training with medium weight in the 10-15 rep range (depends on the movement), following the 12 week video trainer program to try and cut BF. 

What’s going wrong? maybe my form’s off? am I lifting too heavy and involving support muscles too much? lifting too light and just wasting energy?

any advice or comments are appreciated!!

Jex 

week two (of twelve) is almost done…the DOMS only kicked in for the first week, which is good and bad; I love feeling like I’ve actually accomplished something in the gym, but hate limping around with stiff legs. I added a couple sets to back and bi day to get a better feeling pump/burn. I’ve also been doing a bit of HIIT instead of steady state cardio trying to up the fat loss. 

I hate where I’m at right now. I feel like I should be trying to get bigger but I also know I need to lose BF. I’d rather be small and cut than huge and soft, but hate being small!!!!

I finally made it to the gym for the first time in about 2 months (probably longer) today… I’m actually kinda sore already… I’m going to follow the 12 week transformation program (video trainer) and see how that works to get me back in the groove of working and working out. I ve lost most of my muscle mass and basically all of my strength gains, its a pretty sad state I am in right now. I felt more depressed leaving the gym than not going at all… I ‘ll update when can

-Jex 

I’m starting to follow this months M&F "cut down" meal plan, starting tomorrow. I haven’t seen much progress lately and am hoping following this will spark new fat loss. I’ve also started flax oil, caffeine(pre am cardio), and CLA sups today. I haven’t been doing too bad nutrirtion wise I just wanted a change, so theres my reasoning for the "diet." I’m also considering changing up my routine to a basic pyramid scheme followed by a pyramid/rest-pause hybrid(also from the new M&F) I haven’t trained with a pyramid style routine before and that’s why I want to start with the basic routine. I haven’t had a response in my journal (surprise, suprise) so haven’t really been keeping that up to date either. oh, and cardio wise Im going to keep the am sessions(35-45mins), with a short (10-20 mins) post workout session, and the occasional night session(10-15mins).

Jex 

Summer’s sneaking up and I’ve completely been messing up gym time. I only made 3 of 4 trips last week and 1 of 4 this week!! In my defense it is the final week of school… 4 exams, three of them tomorrow… and I’ve been looking for a job. I have been getting in cardio on the home bike so I’m not doing Nothing but I’m not where I should be. I have more job stuff I have to get done thru saturday, but Sunday I"m back to the gym and Hittin it HARD!!! going to cut my sets down from volume to a heavier workload for a couple weeks, I’m thinking from 8-12 reps 5 sets to a 6-8, 3 sets scheme, maybe a fourth "pump" set for good measure, we’ll see…until then, its back to school!!!

Jex

Today I picked up a little exercise bike, to make sure I got my cardio in. I sometimes run out of time at the gym and end up cutting cardio short, so I got this bike, and am going to try to get in two sessions a day. I ll shoot for around 30 - 45 mins each session, one in the am and one early evening. I’m hoping if I can keep this up I’ll drop some excess BF..and keep my muscles the same size (or somehow bigger : ) ) by the beach season. My weight routine will stay as a 4 day split sun-wed. with a light cardio warmup. and I’ll keep cals around 2600-2900 in 5-6 meals. I want some reuslts!!!

 Jex

Since the last post on here, I’ve decided to mak a slight alteration to my routine. Each week I’m going to reverse the rouitne so week 1 i went days 1,2,3,4 and this week I’m going to go in the order of Days 4,3,2,1 then switch back again next week. I think this’ll keep my body guessing and keep me fom getting bored. I change my routine too often and want to stick to this for a while. I’m thinking four weeks like this and then I’ll just change the rep scheme for a couple weeks.

It’s been a while since posting in here so I figured I throw in a quick update of my routine… I’m on a four day split right now with number of sets in brackets:

day 1-shoulders(9)/light chest(4)/tris(9), day2- back(15)/bis(5), day 3- legs(15)/calves(5)/light shoulders(4), day 4- bis(5)/tris(10)/traps(5)

mosty exercises are done in sets of five, 2 heavy, 6-8 reps, 2 med., 8-12 reps, and one for pump 15+ reps I increase or decrease weight lifted based on how I’m feeling that day, trying for an increase every week. I’m also hitting 8 sets for abs each day: 2 sets upper, 2 sets lower, 2 sets mid, and 2 sets obliques. This has seemed to be working for me so far, alot better progress than I’ve had before. I’m doing 250-450 cals in cardio each workout, as well, as extra jogging on non-training days. I’ve been keeping calorie intake close to 500-550 per meal 5 meals per day, about 2800 cals total. I’m going to keep this training routine for at least four weeks, and then adjust nutrition, and cardio as needed….  

On march 3rd I wrote a blog about being on march break and therfore being able to do a 5 day split, I measured myself that day to compare to today’s(last day of the 5 day split) measurement. My stats have been input on my page progress over the week:

Chest:+2.8", waist -0.2", shoulders: +0.8", Quads: +0.1", calves: N/A, Arms: +.4", forearm: -0.1", weight: + 0.4lbs.

I know these are mostly just weekly fluctuations but still alot bigger change than I anticipated!!!

I’ve also started measuring my BF% again, I have a scale that does it, as well as calipers. These both vary quite a bit from each other(3% today) and are a far from the # I got when a trainer did it at the gym. I’m just going to take the average of the calipers and the scale just to keep an eye on any fluctuations…I want to get it done at he gym again but they charge an arm and a leg for it.