Shreddedgeek’s BodyBlog

So today is the last weigh-in of the year, I have been on this current bulk for 5 months and have been gaining nicely.  I have gone from 142lbs LBM to a current of 149lbs LBM.  That is a gain of 7 lbs in 5 Months of LBM all while staying under the dreaded 15% BF.  My goal was to originally stay under 12% but since my strenght has been seriously increasing i choose to push that to 15%.  So my average overall gain has been 3.4 lbs per month with an average LBM gain of 1.4 lbs.  So that is bascially a 2 to 1 gain.  Just about perfect in my book. These are numbers that I am impressed with, I did not think could be possible but I owe it all to my strict clean diet regiment and my training partner. (He never lets me back down)

I have a created a side by side comparison of a year time span, on the left is a shot that shows me Jan 01 2007 weighing in at about 160lbs at the begining of a cut for a March Show, the one on the right is December 30 2007 after a 5 month bulk. I did stay very low BF most of 2007 as I competed 3 times.  Strange how pictures tell a story as I see a huge difference in my back possible.

I am going to continue to bulk all of 2008 trying to gain enough LBM to move up to Middle-Weight or Welter-Weight, this will be tough as the force feeding is tiresome, but after seeing the results thus far I have a strong will to continue. Starting Jan 1 2008 I am going to go on a bit of a cut to bring the BF back down to 10% and then I will cycle between 10-13 as long as possible.

Well after skating through the entire year without actually catching a cold, it finally happened the friday before Christmas i came down with the bug.  Talk about bad timing.  I had not even started my Christmas shopping and was hoping to have such a nice holiday and enjoy the long weekend…But NO I ended up spending the weekend in bed.  Not much fun.  The part that was most frustrating was that I lost my appetite in the middle of my bulking and ended up loosing 4.5lbs… in just 7 days :–(   Now sure I could pig out and put it back on… but I have been so good with my Diet and keeping right on track with only about 1.5 lbs gaining a week.  Of course this only a setback and I am really hoping that most of the loss is just water and fat (wishes).  Oh well time to get back on track.   So this weekend when I post my weight we will see where i am on the scales.

Well no one ever reads a blog, but I finally need to update mine as my goals have changed drastically since my last entry.

Well I did not post last week and was thinking about not posting this week. 

Two weeks ago my leg was so messed up that I only got one 40 minute session of cardio which totally screwed me up for the rest of the week.  My leg was numb, and if I was on my feet for more than an hour it hurt very badly.  No matter how I stretched it there was just no relief. So I spent most of my time sitting on Ice/heat and stretching it. 

This last week I was able to get back to my therapist and I had one of the most painful sessions EVER, She dug in so deep that I swear I crushed the tennis ball in my hand.  As I limped out of the office I noticed that I was able to walk with a full stride, even though I still had tears in my eyes I was thinking that we might be on to something.  I had a second session this past Friday and again she was diggin in, she claimed that we were finally able to break up the scar tissue that has been causing some of this pain.  It is just so painful to have to get through. 

My leg feels good today and there is no discomfort at this time.  I was very careful and tried my best to rest.  REST this is something that i am not good at. 

Needless to say i did not do any form of cardio this past week and I kept my workout to a light workout with no exercises that would complicate matters. 

 Kept my diet at the same levels and managed to maintain my current weight. This coming week I am going to adjust the diet a bit to lower my calorie intake just enough to possible drop down another pound.  I am getting close to a look that I have seen other competitors compete at but I sure hope to drop down a bit more before I get on stage for me I feel that I really need to pull out the striations. 

Wish me Luck. 

Wow, time fly’s when you are dieting?  Well sort of.  This was week one of actually cutting and getting some cardio back into the routine.  I was able to push through some cardio Monday, Tuesday then Thursday and Friday.  Monday Tuesday,  I rode the bycicle and then on Thursday I was on the Stairmaster. Then on Friday I ran on the treadmill which really aggravated my glute.  I am not sure if it was the actually running or the fact that it was too much for the week.  I feel that I am making progress in my recovery but this week I will keep squats, full dead lifts and bent over rows out of my routine this week.   Overall I hit my goal of 2.5lbs of loss.  This week I will keep the calorie count the same as well as the macronutrients.   My look is coming along, I got the top abs back and a little less roll on the belly,  Legs are looking OK.  This next week I will target 2.5 lbs again but will kick up the cardio just a notch. Hope my glute holds up.

Oops I deleted my first posting, Good thing I had a copy.  The date is wrong but it was June 10th.

 Here goes, I have decided to compete again this year.  The mass attack will be put off until after summer (well most of it), Oh well at least I can wear big baggy clothes during my bulk and not feel too strange.  The training is going to be slightly different this time, I am going to split my cardio and workout up into two separate trips to the gym, one early AM for cardio/posing conditioning and the other in the afternoon on a 5 day split to keep the fibers stimulated.  Days off will be the weekend with only a posing class (like that is a day off).  weigh-in’s will be every Saturday AM with weight, BF & LM logged to keep me honest and heading in the right direction. Wish me luck!