Splattered Angst

Got the new progress pics up and the carb cycling thing worked quite well. Thanks to Markus Reinhardt [mrhighintensity] for that tip. I am going to keep it up this week and then switch things around for next week and dial in a wee bit more protein and level things off. Took of 14+ lbs in about a month. Got all the excess off that my ill gotten "Bulking" attempt put on.
It has been a year this month since I started the journey to get the weight off and the support that I have gotten from folks on this site has been awesome. I also credit the couple of different workout partners that I have had too, Jess, Jerry and David at Club Paradise Fitness Club here in Fallbrook. The encouragement has been key to the success I have had.

Going to be taking this week off from weight training and focus on some ab routines and cardio. I try and take a week off every few weeks and I am due. My back was a tad locked up on Saturday anyway. Need to let that fade before I make a run at reaching for new numbers. I need to take some time getting the new diet dialed in [thanks for your help Bobby!] and think about goals for the new Challenge [C3] that I am in on with a group to great folks on a forum. I am really stocked to see many of those that I have had exchanges with over the last year or so in on it with me. This is a pretty cool community, I must say.

I have been enjoying the HIT workouts for a number of reasons. There is so much more mind challenge in the business of pushing yourself, but doing the same movements week after week is something that is going to have to change. I feel like I am running into a wall of sorts. This coming week is the week to hit the reset button. I have put together three different HIT workouts that I am going to cycle through. Each week the workout will vary in the movements. This will keep things from getting stale as well as leave me with an obvious way to track strenght gains, which is a critical aspect of HIT. I’ll post each of the workouts week by week - don’t want to fill the post with all three at this point. If are interested in getting them, as I know some that watch my blog have been, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send them in a Word file to you.

The carb cycling diet is really going well. The previous bulking weight has been shed and I am looking forward to the next set of progress pics because I think they are gonna be the best yet.

Here is HIT v2.1:

True HIT Training: Guidelines/Principles
1. Only perform one set per exercise [after warm-ups]
2. Warm ups: Do only that which is minimally required to limber muscles and get blood flowing to the area to be worked. On pre-exhaust cycles, do the second exercise as the warm up.
3. Exercises are to be done in strict form: No momentum. 4 seconds to lift, 2 second hold, 4 seconds to lower.
4. When there is a per-exhaust cycle go directly to the next exercise – no rest. When there is no pre-exhaust, rest as needed.
5. Sets must be taken to momentary muscular failure.
6. Each time you reach the upper end of allotted number of reps, increase weight by 10%.

7. The only way to gage the success of your workout is by the standard of strength increases. Keep a good record.  [Increases in size follow increases in strength.]
8. A lack of progress is almost never due to too little exercise, but too much.

Day 1.1 ~ Monday:  Pressing
Chest
DB Flys [6-10 Reps] –  pre-exhaust to DB Bench Press [3-5 Reps]
Pec Deck [6-10 Reps]
Shoulders
Machine Lateral Raises [6-10 Reps]
Incline Rear Delt Cable [6-10 Reps]
Smith Machine Press [6-10 Reps]
Triceps
Cable Press Downs [6-10 Reps] Pre-exhaust for Dips [3-5 Reps]

Day 2.1 ~ Wednesday

Legs
Leg Extensions [8-15 Reps] pre-exhaust to Squats [8-15 Reps]
Leg Press Naut Machine [8-15 Reps]
Standing Calve Raises [8-15 Reps]
Use Rest/Pause to get 15 in.

Day 3.1  ~  Friday:  Pulling
Back
DB Pull Over  [6-10 Reps]  pre exhaust to BB Row [6-10 Reps]
Close Grip Cable Pull Down [6-10 Reps]
Dead Lift [6-10 Reps]

Biceps
Straight Bar Curls [6-10 Reps]

Saturday’s 1.1
Abs/Core Strengthening [couple of sets of each]

Ball Crunches vs Planks
Side Planks vs Ab Roller

Aerobics Schedule: No Aerobics on weight training days, Tues/Thursday, Recumbent Bike or Elliptical - higher resistance setting, 20 to 30 minutes; Saturday Stair Mill, 20 minutes higher speed.

OK … went and got the iPod today. Very cool gizmo. There are lots of songs that I have heard in gyms over the years that were mighty cool when working out, but just never known what the names of the bands were. I like Linkin Park … loaded a few of their songs. Anybody got any ideas for others? What do you put on yours, eh?

I am quite pleased with the HIT workouts. The strenght increases have been dramatic in some regards, even though the "workout tracker" graphs do not seem capable of digesting some of my increases when I am doing more than 12 reps in a particular exercise.
Having my workout partner unplug a couple of weeks ago is not the deterrent that I thought it would be either. His older brother had been noticing how he had been gaining muscle and ripping up the last few months working out with me and asked him to start training with him. Obviously working out with both of us was not an option and threesomes don’t work. I thought about it and realized that if I had one of my brother’s local and they asked me to workout with them, I would have a hard time telling them no too. So its good. He is an employee at the gym and is there when I am working out in the early AM and he still gives me a spot when I need it.

Keeping a close record and competing with my self by looking at the weight I did the week previous and setting a goal for the next week workout by workout is turning out to be quite functional. In fact I am contemplating getting an iPod to load with heavy metal to shut off some of the distractions in the gym. I previously thought folks that use those were mighty anti-social, but now that things are growing in intensity, I can see the benefits big time. The occasional lame ballad coming across the speakers from the 70s in the gym can distract or the 50 and 60 somethings gossiping about some happening in town or the crazy chick in my gym that seems to grunt and scream a bit too much can all throw me off. Having my own music piped into my ears might be a good thing.

I want to have the focus in the gym of the sprinter - when he steps up to the blocks the lanes are ahead of him and there is nothing going on in his mind but that one thing: getting past that finish line faster than he ever has. I want to have that kind of focus when I am in front of the squat rack looking at weight that I have never lifted before, or bettering myself on the number of reps from last workout… last time I got 6, this time 10.

The fat is coming off … yeah! I have dropped 7 lbs since the bulking phase, so the carb cycling thing is doing some magic and I am going to stick with it. I am certain the next set of progress pics will be very cool.
Nice!

Got the month’s progress pictures up and it was a good reality check. After I took the previous pics at Christmas, I dipped down to 195 and thought, "Hey, its time to put on some muscle" and I purposely started eating more and added an extra meal per day for a couple of weeks there. Then my belt started getting pretty snug, frightened, I backed off. The remnants of my attempts at "bulking" are still evident in this month’s pics, but it is coming off. I was spitting nails for a couple of hours yesterday after I initially saw the new progress pics. I was bargaining with myself, "… it was the yellow wall, I should have taken the pics in front of the mirrors like last time… or maybe it was the shadows, yeah, that’s it! I’ll redo the pictures and delete these…" yadda, yadda yadda … hmmm. I felt like asking those around me "Are these voices in my head bothering you?" Spin … like out of control spin. It was ridiculous. I got a grip and started to think through what I have been doing the last few weeks. What I did was on purpose and when you up the calories like I did that quick, you are going to put on a few pounds. Its that easy. Relax. I have learned a lot over the last year about my body … and I know what to do to make sure the next progress pic is better than the December pic. Stay tuned …

The carb cycling diet that I have got going is up to something because I certainly feel a good deal more energy during the day and the workouts are certainly on the upswing. Cool!

Spent wayyyy too much time with the workout tracker gizmo this morning, but I thought since I am diving into this HIT workout, it would be a good time to start using the thing. The amounts of weight there are not huge at the moment, but that has to do with me trying to make sure I am doing things right. I got few people to impress frankly [other than the guys that I am in a Challenge 2 on our forum]. When you have only got one set to do, you want to make sure you nail it and trying to load it up with too much at the front end here would be a mighty lame idea. The idea here is to track strenght increases and the amounts are certainly increasing - and I am pretty stoked about it. I believe I am discovering the intensity that doing the HIT slower reps with the pre-exhaust prior are suppose to deliver. Stepped under 215 at the squat rack yesterday for 20 reps and it felt surprisingly light … that was 25 lbs more than the previous week. I am taking  the increases 10% at a time. Want to make sure I ease into the heavier stuff. My legs today are actually sore today [!] and I didn’t feel like vacuuming up the post workout meal for about an hour after I left the gym yesterday. Pretty iffy stomach sensations there for a bit, but that is a good thing: proving it to myself that I am actually pushing. And push I will … back and bis tomorrow.

Plugged in a new diet today and it has me cutting back on protein and upping the carbs -  in fact cycling them … approx 200g of carbs one day, 350 day 2 and 500g on day 3. We’ll see how that goes. I was convinced recently that over doing it with the protein is kind of like throwing a "wet log on the fire." It is a three day cycle that repeats. Most of the protein is coming from milk sources [I’ll no doubt rearrange that later as I get used to things - swap yogurt out for chicken, cottage cheese for tuna, etc. depending on how it all goes], and the carbs are coming from oats, brown rice, barley, fruit and lentils. Fats are coming from the milk products and from salad dressings that I use to give things a bit of flavor:

Day 1: 1919 Calories, 168g Protein, 239g Carbs, 27g Fats
Day 2:  2273 Calories, 185g Protein, 364g Carbs, 43g Fats
Day 3: 3181 Calories, 172g Protein, 511g Carbs, 56g Fats
The goal is to ramp up the metabolism while maintaining the energy to do the HIT workouts with the intensity necessary to put on muscle. Should be interesting.

This week has been quite a ride. Plugged in a new routine [posted below]. It is brief, but intense - and that is the part that is intriguing: finding that intensity to make it function. It is so much more of a mind thing and it forces me to think more like an athlete instead of your standard "gym rat." Like the sprinter that knows he has one shot to get across the finish line, so that single effort - that one set - has got to count. There’s no third or fourth set to "make up" for a sloppy set - It is just one set of balls to the wall focused effort. Training like that has a completely different flavor to it.  It is more engaging … it is not a "workout by numbers." Overcoming the mind factor, I am finding, is a far larger battle than increasing my reps on Dead Lifts… it is a sensation of grappling that I do not think I have experienced to date. I like it.

The workout below is a bit different than the one that I posted previously. After I had a conversation with Reinhardt, I flipped somethings around. Went through this workout the past week and there are some exercises that I am just getting a feel for and base line on and there were some others I had have done and made gains with - particularly squats and dead lifts. When it comes to squats, it is just a circumstance of overcoming the general worry of being squished! I went up 20 lbs this week and did 20 reps … I think I can do a great deal more when it comes to squats, it is just a matter of trusting my body to do it … lots of room to grow there. Dead lifts are up as well. 225 lbs for twice the reps I did the week prior. Very cool. And I think I am going to start using straps for that. While I have played the tough guy before about "going strapless" [ladies, I am sure you laughed at that] that is going to change. Any suggestions on a good brand/type of strap?

Looking forward to the coming week and tracking the gains in the various movements below …
Cool!

==========================
True HIT Training: Guidelines/Principles
1. Only perform one set per exercise [after warm-ups]
2. Warm ups: Do only that which is minimally required to limber muscles and get blood flowing to the area to be worked. On pre-exhaust cycles, do the second exercise as the warm up.
3. Exercises are to be done in strict form: No momentum. 4 seconds to lift, 2 second hold, 4 seconds to lower.
4. When there is a per-exhaust cycle go directly to the next exercise – no rest. When there is no pre-exhaust, rest as needed.
5. Sets must be taken to momentary muscular failure.
6. Each time you reach the upper end of allotted number of reps, increase weight by 10%.
7. The only way to gage the success of your workout is by the standard of strength increases. Keep a good record.  [Increases in size follow increases in strength.]
8. A lack of progress is almost never due to too little exercise, but too much.

Day 1 ~ Monday:  Pressing
Chest
Dumb Bell Flys [6-10 Reps] – pre-exhaust to Smith Incline Press [3-5 Reps]
Pec Deck [6-10 Reps]
Shoulders
Machine Lateral Raises [6-10 Reps]
Incline Rear Delt Cable [6-10 Reps]
Triceps
Cable Press Downs [6-10 Reps] Pre-exhaust for Dips [3-5 Reps]

Day 2 ~ Wednesday
Legs
Leg Extensions [12-20 Reps]
Pre-Exhaust to Squats [12-20 Reps]
Leg Press [12-20 Reps]
Standing Calve Raises [12-20 Reps]

Abs
Weighted Hanging Leg Raises [12-20 Reps]

Day 3  ~  Friday:  Pulling
Back
Straight Arm Pull Down [shoulder width, pause at the bottom [6-10 reps] pre exhaust to Palms up, Pull Down [6-10 reps]
Dead Lift [6-10 Reps] Every other week…
alternate with T-Bar Row [6-10 reps]
Biceps
Straight Bar Curls [6-10 Reps]