Viking News

After Halloween, no drinking until New Year’s Eve.

So I’m back….unfortunately, I let the summer beer drinking go too far…not dangerously or anything…but I am at the largest waistline of my entire life…yuk…so it’s time to cut back on the beer.  Other than that, as far as my fitness goes, my friend Vince and I have been working out once per week doing a consolidated (we modified it a little) High Intensity Training workout.  We took it straight out of Mike Mentzer’s book, "High Intensity Training, the Mike Mentzer Way."  I highly suggest any serious bodybuilder read this book.  It is a little jargon heavy at times and he’s very philisophical but if you can get through that, then the science and knowledge he puts forth, is logical and exciting.  If there is one key point from the book to pass on, it would be that OVERTRAINING is the most common and easiest mistake for every bodybuilder to make.  I’ve done 6 HIT sessions in the last 6 weeks, and even though they are small steps, I’ve increased my weight and/or reps every week on every exercise.  I think there will be a point where that will slow down and I’ll have to try some different techniques to shock my muscles.  But overall, I am happy with my progress.  I’ve never had steady progress for 6 weeks in a row EVER…except when I first started lifting 8 years ago…but that happens for everyone.  The hardest thing about Mentzer’s style of training is that if you are a lover of bodybuilding and training…then the amount of time off inbetween workouts will drive you nuts and you’ll easily be tempted to want to work out more.  But if you can be patient and rely on the science of HIT training, it’ll be worth it.  Also, it is very against the classic volume training style and even most workouts suggested on BB.com….basically when training with the highest intensity possible, you should not train more than twice per week.  Like I said, my training partner and I are training once per week.  It’s been hard because we’ve both wanted to train more inbetween but we haven’t and we’ve both never progressed like this.  Small steps as they may be, it is still progress and you can’t argue with the training journal.  Alright well I’ve gone on enough.  I’m going to try to update here more often.  I hope everyone is doing well with their efforts.  Until next time…

My brother and I have been following HIT principles from Mike Mentzer’s books for our workouts for the last 2 months.  As much as I like doing heavier weights, less reps, less sets, and less workouts, I just like working out so I was getting bored and I decided to do some lighter "burn" workouts in between our HIT sessions.  I worked my shoulders, and arms 2 days ago.  I tried a new excersise that I got out of Sylvester Stallone’s book "Sly Moves" and man did it work.  It’s called Bent Over Runners.  This is a shoulder excersise.  This is where you take a pair of light dumbbells (I used 12 pounders) and stand slightly bent over with one leg ahead of the other like you’re in mid-step.  In this position you swing the dumbbells up and back, like you’re jogging (but keeping your feet planted).  BUT you do this in slow motion.  It’s like jogging but in super slow-mo.  I did 4 sets of 25 reps and holy crap are my shoulders sore.  My shoulders honestly haven’t been sore in probably 2-3 months.  Not like this.  It works your entire shoulder capsule from front to back and also your traps and arms.  It’s a wicked excersise.  Just thought I’d pass on the info.  Sly’s book is pretty sweet too.  I highly recommend it. 

I just thought I’d share a new awesome bodybuilding meal I came up with.

Turkey stir fry:

8oz 93%lean ground turkey

1/2 bag Bird’s Eye frozen asparagus stir fry

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. minced garlic

Just spray a frying pan with some non-stick cooking spray, cook the 8 oz of ground turkey until it’s thoroughly cooked through and browned, then add the frozen stir fry veggies.  Also, drizzle the olive oil and soy sauce at this point.  continue to stir fry until the veggies are thawed and hot.  Voila.  It’s about 500 calories, 45 grams of protein and about 25 carbs.  Perfect for dinner if you’re watching your carbs and very tasty!

Instead of posting a new blog every day, I’m just going to keep adding to this one. I’m going to use this blog as a diet journal. It’s more fun than doing it in a boring notebook.

3/20/08

Meal 1: 10:15am - 1 scoop vanilla whey, 1 tbsp orange gatorade powder, 1 tsp glutamine mixed in 8 oz water, 1 leanfire inferno capsule.

Meal 2: 11:15am - 10oz nonfat milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 bag asparagus stir fry mix.

Meal 3: 2:30pm - 1 scoop vanilla whey in water, 1 lean quizine (steak, peppers, & cheese on flatbread)

Meal 4: 5:30pm - 1/2 large can of turkey, 1 cup veggie stir fry, 1 medium potato w/ BBQ sauce & a small salad with diced ham, shredded cheese and bleu cheese dressing. (I don’t know the exact measurements because I bought it at work.)

Meal 5: (preworkout) 8:15pm - protein shake: 1 scoop vanilla whey, 1 tbsp. orange gatorade powder, 1 tsp. creatine, 1 tsp. glutamine, 10 oz water.

Meal 6: (postworkout) 10:30pm - protein shake: 1 scoop vanilla whey, 2 tbsp. orange gatorade powder, 1 tsp. glutamine, 10oz water.

4/9/07

Meal 1: (preworkout) 7am - protein shake: 1 scoop vanilla whey, 1 tbsp. lemon/lime gatorade powder, 1 tsp. creatine, 1 tsp. glutamine, 10 oz water.

170 calories. 20 protein. 13 carbs.

Meal 2: (postworkout) 9:20am - protein shake: 1 scoop vanilla whey, 2 tbsp. lemon/lime gatorade powder, 12 oz nonfat milk, 8 oz water, 1 tsp. glutamine.

355 calories. 32 protein. 33 carbs.

Meal 3: 11:20 - 4 eggs, 2 pieces multi-grain toast

500 calories. 28 protein. 45 carbs.

Meal 4: Southbeach Diet Meal + 2 cookies (approx. 500 extra calories!)

270 calories. 30 protein. 10 carbs.

Meal 5: 8 oz turkey, veggies.

500 calories. 40 protein. 15 carbs.

Meal 6: strawberry smoothie

My wife and I are having a baby girl in a month.  I’m hoping to stick with a strict diet between now and then.  I know it’s gonna be harder on my body to work out while taking care of a baby, so I figure I ought to be hardcore now while it’s easy.  Not that it’s ever easy, but it is compared to being a new parent.  Here’s what I ate today:

 meal 1: 8:30am 2 eggs, 1/2 bag frozen veggies stir fried, 1 scoop whey in water, 1 leanfire inferno capsule.

meal 2: 11:30am 1 metr-x crispy apple pie protein bar.  The best protein bar ever, by the way!

meal 3: 2:30pm salmon & pasta lean cuisine, 1 scoop whey in water multivitamin, vitamin c, 1 leanfire inferno capsule

meal 4: 5:30pm 1 cup stir fried veggies, 6 oz boneless skinless chicken, 1 medium potato, small salad with 1 tbsp olive oil&vinegar dressing.

meal 5: 8:15pm (pre-workout) gatorade cream-cicle shake (1 scoop vanilla whey, 1 tbsp. orange gatorade powder, 1 tsp. creatine powder, 1 tsp. glutamine powder, 10 oz water).

meal 6: 10:30pm (post-workout) orange gatorade cream-cicle shake (1 scoop vanilla whey, 2 tbsp. gatorade powder, 12oz non-fat milk, 1 tsp. glutamine

 This, w/ similar healthy substitutions is what I plan to stick to.  Wish me luck. 

So 2008 kicked off a month and a half ago.  My brother and I have been working out together 4 days a week at my home gym.  Things have been going well.  I’m getting stronger than I’ve been in a while and my brother is just beginning so he’s advancing quickly.  It’s a good time for both of us.  I bench pressed the most I’ve ever done this past week with 260 lbs for 6 reps on my own and 1 assisted rep.  I felt pretty good about that.  My arms seem to be stronger than they have been in the past also.  So far 2008 is going well in the gym.  I hope it stays that way.

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