Mike_Semanoff’s BodyBlog

Overall: A-  Overall I had a great week. I had great energy in the gym and even managed to eat.

Nutrition: B+  Holly has been keeping me on track with my nutrition. Its good to be accountable to someone once in a while.  I don’t usually eat much steak but this week I had steak 3 time.

Training: A+  I have been really enjoying my X-rep hybrids.  I’ve also been cranking up the weight all week and i feel strong.  Always a good feeling.

Overall: Really kicked in the nutz.  I got sick Saturday of week 5 and i was worthless for almost all of week 6.  Right before I got sick I weighed in at 208 and by the end of week 6 i was down to 202.  Well i’m back at it for week 7.

Overall: A-  Great all around week. great training and nutrition.  My weight is up and I feel lean.

Bad news: By the end of the week I started to feel sick and saturday night I was in bed with a bad feaver.  I couldnt really eat much for the next 5 or 6 days.

I’ve been a vegetarian for a month now and I and a lot to learn, I Really had no idea it was going to be this hard to pack on the muscle going vegetarian.  In one month I’m up a solid 7lbs of lean mass.  I was hoping to be up 10lbs but then again i learned a ton.  I may have to supplement some leucine but we’ll see what Shane can do on the meal plan side of things.
Training for the month
I train heavy with high intensity for one week followed by one week of high volume training. I’ve been doing a lot of work with a focused eccentric contraction and an explosive concentric contraction and I love it.  I like to preload the muscle with a short contraction followed by a controlled eccentric contraction followed by an explosive full rep.   I feel like I could roast marshmellows over the burn.  Next month I’m going to focus more on the stretched range of my rep and work in some of my preloaded reps on my first one or two sets.
My weekly split isn’t anything special, but here are the basics. Chest and Triceps, Back and Biceps, Legs, Shoulders, day off. I’ll give more info when the story gets published.

Overall: B+  Overall i had a really good week.  Didn’t miss any training sessions and even added some cardio into the program. I have made progress in my nutrition plan although I don’t feel like I’m getting all the nutrition I need to really grow. I’m working with shane to get some suppliments that may fill in the gaps for me.

Nutrition: B   My meal timing while I’m at work is still out of ballance. My calorie ballance is ok but I feel like my ratios of protein, carbs, and fats could be dialed in.  I found its really hard to get a full amino acid profile without having really high carb meals.  I’m probably going to play with Alphalupoic Acid to help deal with the carbs.

Training: A   because I had an amazing training week but I still have room to increase intensity. I get to quit being a pussy in the gym and really bring the pain. <em />

Overall: B  I’ve really made progress in every aspect of my training program.  My workouts have been solid and full of energy. My nutrition has been really good this week although my meals while at work have been suffering.

 Nutrition: C+  I’m still tuning into what my body likes in the way of vegetarian nutrition. I know I’m getting close because my weight has made a noticeable increase.  I gave myself a C+ because I miss about 600 calories a day while I’m at work, and I haven’t really dialed everything in yet. The vegetarian thing is still rather new to me but I’m learning fast.

Training: A- My workouts have been awesome.  Seeing the scale creeping up has really lit a fire under my butt.  I’ve also finally dealt with a nagging case of ITB tendonitis that has plagued me for 2 years.  My brother and I traced it to a locked up SI joint, almost a week later I feel like I have a new set of legs. I’ve also been playing a lot with the eccentric portion of my rep range.

Overall C: I picked up a fitness manager position the day before grand opening. Needless to say I was extremely busy and missed a bunch of meals and 1 workout.

Nutrition C-: I’ve been packing a lunch box everywhere I go but i still have food left over at the end of the day. Shame on me. I’m slacking on the sweet potatoes and cottage cheese.  The crazy grand opening and seminar made it hard to choke something down every 2 hours.

Training B: I had an amazing leg workout on Monday. Squatted heaver than I have in the previous 2 years and did some heavy power cleans. Had an great chest workout on Tuesday managing 115lb bumbell presses for sets of 8, integrating x-reps. Wednesday provided a moderate back workout with slightly less intensity than usually, but still respectable.  Thursday was off. friday was a lame leg workout, and I totally missed Saturday due to a 12 hour seminar and family being in town.  Excuses are lame I know.

I’m still making gains but I’ll still loosing body fat so I know I’m not eating enough.  My goal for this coming week is to get all my calories in every day. One exciting note. I have several interested sponsors. I’ll keep you posed on progress in that area.  Body fat% from skyndex 10.8 set at 3  and 6.5 set at 2.

Overall: B-  I did good with my training for the week but I Saturday was worthless. I had 7 people that I took skydiving and one person paragliding. my day was full of activity but very little eating, and to top it off i didn’t make it to the gym.

Nutrition: C-    I have to get used to eating again.  I get into the flow of some of my ongoing projects and I forget to eat.  I’m going to start making sure i have a cooler packed with my meals before I head out the door.

Training: A-   I’ve been hitting it hard in the gym.  It feels really good to have a goal and a good training partner to keep me on track.   I missed Saturday but all week was good, 4 days of weights and 2 days of yoga.

I’ve been feeling really good with what I’m doing.  The vegetarian diet leaves me feeling light and mobile with enough energy to keep me going.  In the past when I would go into a growing phase I would constantly feel bloated and sluggish because the food sits in my gut forever.  The trick right now is getting complete protein without a large intake of carbohydrates. (Shane and I are still working this out)

Its a Saturday, I had my brother take my before pictures and did some yoga with my wife Holly.  On Monday I’m going to head over to BYU to get my body fat tested in the Bodpod so I can get an unbiased baseline test.  I tested this morning with the skindex skin fold caliper. I tested at 11.1% with the setting at 3 and 6.7% with the setting at 2. The numbers were 2.5, 3.4, 6.8, and 5.0.

I’m only a few days away from starting my new training experiment. This week I am getting some of my 1 rep maxes and other baseline measurements out of the way.  I’m also working closely with Shane Hugely this week to fine tune my vegetarian diet. It will be very interesting to see how my body responds to my training and this nutrition program. I’m guessing I can put on 25 lbs on lean mass in 12 weeks.

check in often because I’ll be updating progress weekly with pictures and video.