Stryka’s BodyBlog

As a special request here is my recipe on how to make Brown Rice taste good. Making the stuff we eat taste nice is a huge step towards keeping the diet consistent. And keeping your diet consistent is always a great step towards achieving what we set out to do.

The problem with the Brown rice is that is very bland and has a horrible mushy texture to it. So when I was experimenting my main goal was to try and break that up a bit.

First thing is to cook it in Stock instead of just water. This does wonders towards the flavour factor. I get a salt reduced version of either Chicken or Beef stock that is 99% fat free. Even still make sure you drink lots of water to flush the added salt out. Sprinkle some mixed herbs into the mix before cooking to add extra flavours but make sure there isn’t added salt in the herbs.

Cut up fresh veggies such as Carrot, Corn, broccoli, etc and cook with the rice or throw in raw afterwards if possible. This really helps to break up the mushyness of the rice by adding fresh crisp flavours in there as well as a lot of colour.

Lastly chop up low fat ham into little pieces and mix through the rice. Again this breaks up the texture.

Get creative with what you throw in there. you can cut up an egg white omelette if you want to add some protein or simply serve as a side dish for your chicken breast or steak. Just be aware of the sodium content but that is the only negative with this dish.

Very easy to make in bulk as well!

As I look back across the year that was 2008 I have had many victories and failures as well.

I started the year sitting around 82kg and 11-12% body fat. Initially my plan was to spend the first six months bulking back up to 90kg. I very quickly got to 86.5kg but at a very high cost. I had hit 17% body fat. If you work out the lean mass with those numbers I had actually managed to decrease muscle on a bulk! I started the year with some good gains strength wise, going from 110kg on Squats to 5-6 reps of 130kg as an example but after about 4 months hit a plateau and those gains stopped and by June was barely able to get 110kg up again. I specifically remember one leg day when I get the first rep up with 110kg but couldn’t get the second so that is exactly where my 1 rep max had dropped back too.

By this stage my weight had dropped back to 82kg and 12%. 6months work to be exactly where I had started. I think the main reason for the lack of progress was lack of nutrition. Cardio had picked up which had helped keep the bodyfat in check, but my lack of progress had disheartened me and when I don’t have anything to focus on then my diet gets lazy and the drivethru becomes more regular.

I took two weeks off in late June and this was my line in the sand. I learnt how to cook brown rice so that it tasted good and introduced sweet potato into the diet. I made sure that I had good sources of protein during the day and stopped going for a couple of drinks after work on a Friday night. I was running at least weekly now which had increased to 45 -60 minute runs. I also was riding to work 2-3 times a week which was giving me 4-6 extra 35minute cardio sessions a week. Pretty soon I went from barely getting through a Sunday morning run with the group from my gym to consistently beating them home every week.

By the end of July I had built myself to a point where I realised that if I was ever going to run the point to pinnacle then this was the ideal year. A good solid base of fitness to start with and training partners to keep me motivated.

August 15 I got my redundancy from my work. I was so pissed off that night I squatted 160kg for the first time. This was a 15kg increase on my previous efforts! Whilst at the time I was worried about where I was next going to get a paycheck from. The payout would have been enough to last me till Feb 09. For my fitness this meant that I had all the time in the world to get 6 good meals in a day and plenty of time to train as well.

This saw me shed bodyfat like it was going out of style (and it is), I cracked single figures for the first time ever and held onto most of my muscle for most of the half marathon training. It probably wasn’t until 4-5 weeks out that I dropped below 78kg at 8% and probably the most damage was done on race day where I dropped down to 74kg. I put most of the race day weight back on since and if you are a regular to my blog I started this bulking process at 77.4 @ 7.5%.

The race itself saw me finish 5 minutes faster than what I thought would be an outside best time. In a race limited to 400 runners and 800 walkers I came 144th with a time of 2:15:40. My lead-up training could have been better and more consistent but days immediately preceding the race couldn’t have been better. Post race left a little bit to be desired as I lacked food intake in a fairly big way.

I have had my ups and downs diet wise in the last couple of weeks but as I type this I am more focussed on succeeding than ever before! More of my food is going to come from fruit and veg. More lean protein. And more calories! I will not repeat last years efforts. I know better now. I have learnt a lot about what works in my body and what I can’t get away with.

2008 Goals:

Bulk up to 90kg - Not yet achieved

Get single digit Bodyfat - Achieved

Run the Point to Pinnacle under 2:30hrs - Achieved

Deadlift 200kg - Achieved (212.5 max) form is work in progress.

Squat – 150kg – Achieved (165 max lifted) Bench 120kg – Not yet achieved (sitting at 105kg)

Run 10km’s and feel no more worn out than after a good weights session – Achieved

I looked up the results for this run today. It actually had a time: 26mins 25 seconds. Which I am pretty happy with seeing I don’t think I pushed myself as hard as I could. 

This morning I ran in the "race to the taste" It is a nice and short 6km fun run that opens up the taste of tasmania food festival. I rocked up with absolutely no preparation whatsoever for this run and a funny thing happened, I had no competitive instints whatsoever today. I couldn’t have cared much less about the start. Content just to slowly work my way through traffic.

Weather was a relatively comfortable 24 degrees c (75f) with quite strong winds.

The course start with a slight uphill for about the first kilometre and I settled in to a good pace, round a loop and then downhill towards the waterfront. Once we got around the loop there was quite a strong tailwind. I opened up my stride a little to let myself pick up some pace down the hill. Up and around to the roadway and I am two thirds of the way through.

More downhill before a flat finish. I try and push into a sprint for the last 5-600 metres and I am over the finish line. I have no idea of what my time was. I am pretty confident that I finished under 27 minutes but by how much, who knows. I forgot to wear my stopwatch and they didn’t tell us at the end.

I do know that the winners did it in about 18mins and the female winner wasn’t very far behind. She competed in the steeplechase in the Beijing games so I guess 18mins would be about as quick as it gets over the course. Out of about 350 runners I would like to think that I would be in the top 100 but again who knows?

Overall it was quite an enjoyable run. I would like to do a few more of these shorter runs over our summer as long as it isn’t any mountain lunacy then 5-10km runs would be a good distance to be able to just rock up and run (although there is a flat half marathon on the 4th Jan that is tempting too?)

As someone says quite often "Enjoy the Journey" and I did without it being a distraction from trying to put on some muscle.

Today I toured another gym. I had actually gone to this one a couple of times when my gym was shut this time last year so I knew what to expect.

$20 for a casual visit. hmm looks like they have put the prices up a bit. At least I know I can get a good workout in. There was only a couple of people in there. That is a good sign because this is the type of commercial gym that you wouldn’t get a dumbell in during peak times. Doesn’t look like much has changed with the equipment since last year. Decent sets of dumbells running up to 40kg. As I am working shoulders today that will do nicely, as I can barely get the 30’s above my head let alone 40kgs. I start with 20’s for 8 reps, feels good, lets do 25kgs, two sets of 8 nicely, 27.5kgs again 2 sets but this time for 6, my gym doesn’t have anything between 25 and 32.5 which is a big jump from too many reps on 25 to one rep max with the 32.5 so it is good to get sets out on the inbetween weights.

I do a four sets of mil presses for 10 with the smith machine then onto shrugs, no straps today so I will need to keep it light. start with 100kg for 15 x 3 sets. Hmm lets try 140kg, 2 sets of 3 of which I am barely able to grip the bar, need to work on my grip strength a bit I think!

Next up lateral raises which within no time complete a good pump in the lateral head. They have one of those adjustable cable thingyme’s (that is a technical term) so I use that to do rear delts.

On to abs. Three sets of leg raises. I haven’t done much ab work lately but these last two days the raises have felt really easy shins to the bar no trouble at all, I even give raising my legs up so I am completly upside down then pushing my body up towards the ceiling a go, but then I thought about how much it would hurt if my grip slipped so I stopped that nonsense.

One set of windscreen wipers and one set of round the worlds before finishing up with a couple of sets on the weighted crunch machine.

All in all a good gym if you can avoid the peak times and feel like forking out $20 a pop?

Tomorrow I am doing a short 6km fun run, which should be cool, I haven’t run for a couple of weeks so I am not expecting blisterings times (although it is a fair bit downhill!)

I apoligise if my posts have been a bit boring lately, just I haven’t had much time to think about anything more interesting but bear with me, I have got a couple of ideas that just need a bit of fleshing out. And of course there will have to be a summary of 08 and goals for 09 post (i know I am real original hey).

As my gym is closed I went in search of a temporary place to train today. And let me tell you straight off, I probably wont be back to the gym I stopped by today.

$14.50 for a casual visit, price wasn’t too bad, about what was expected. And that gets you access to a sauna and pool as well.

The plan was for chest. I wander in - only one flat bench and no incline, decline hmmm. Some kid is already using it. I decide to sit on an excircise bike while I wait, finally the kid finishes but before I can even stop pedalling someone else jumps on. Bugger. After another couple of minutes I decide to do some warmup sets with the dumbells so I can go straight onto the work sets when the bench becomes free.

I finally get on the bench. Still on a 5×5 plan I start out at 200pds and work through to 225. No progression in weight this week. Next is normally incline presses with less weight but higher reps. No incline bench, ahh maybe could use adjustable bench under smith machine? ohh crap same kid as before is hogging it. Not wanting to wait I use the dumbells again. 3 sets working up to 35kg dumbells for 12 reps.

They did have a good variation of the pec dec where the pads sat under your upper arm and the movement was around and down which took your arms out of the exercise. I did 4 sets of 15 and it was good.

Did some dips and tricep pulldowns to quickly hit tri’s as I don’t think I will get in a dedicated arm day over the next couple of weeks. Then did some sets of hanging leg raises, windscreen wipers, round the worlds and then 2 sets of rocky’s before finishing abs with 2 sets on weighted crunch machine. We don’t have one of these in my gym so whenever I am touring I try and use it because I love to add weight to a crunch.

All in all there was enough to get a good workout done just was crappy having to work around other people on the bench and machines as there was really only one option for everything. Great set of dumbells though and all the equipment was new. If I do go back it will only be because I want to use the pool as well (I can’t swim well so not real likely!)

Earlier tonight as I eating dinner (turkey breast and steamed veggies, how good is Christmas that Turkey gets really cheap!) the local news was on in the background and they ran a story about this girl who originally was 182kg but lost well over 100kg through get this "diet and exercise". Who would have thought.

She said she realised that she was killing herself so she decided to do something about it by hiring a personal trainer and eating properly. The news even showed her doing weight training.

I don’t know this girl but congratulations to her for such a momumental achievement and for doing it through hard work and discipline.

Congratulations also to her trainer. You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into making such a positive change in this girls life.

Just thought I would share this good news story with you all.

Tonight was the last time I can get to my gym until the 5th of Jan which really really sucks big time. I am hoping to find another gym to visit between now and then but my gym is just so conveniant. It is limited but really has everything I need. It also means that I will probably have to train with the 5pm afterwork crowd which will suck as well.

I did better on my eating today. Probably still a few calories short of where I need to be but I have gotten in 5 meals with 30+ odd grams of protein each so far with a protein shake before bed to come.

My workout was a set of wide grip pullups as warmup then on to deads, warm up sets with the bar then 70kg and 120kg. Work sets were 3 sets of 5 with 160kg which felt really good. I concentrated on all the same things as last week but brought my hands a little bit wider as well. I didn’t film it to check but it really felt even better than last week and the bar was feeling light so I did an ego rep of 190kg.

I then did a quick set of bent over rows. Then on to the seated row machine where I do one armed rows for sets of 15 reps. Then finished the back of with a couple of triple drop sets on lat pulldown.

Quick arm workout consisting of one set of palm facing in chin ups. and a couple of sets of rope hammer curls to finish up as the attendant subtly turned off the stereo and the fans. I guess that’s that then.

I will probably have the next couple of days off and maybe try and get a round of golf in. I had my first game last week in about four years and despite sucking at it, I had a lot of fun which reignited the desire. I think it was that now the ball went a lot further with less effort. Just need to learn to get it to in a straight line.

Other than that I am hoping to find a gym open on saturday. Sunday there is a 6km fun run which would be cool to do.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Really bad, that is how much, although you wouldn’t think so after the last few days of eating. Friday my diet was pathetic, wouldn’t have been anabolic to a bird let alone anything else. The weekend was ok, but not great food intake wise but today was pathetic again. Who would have thought that anyone would have trouble getting enough calories in this time of year?? I literally dropped over a kilo since yesterday! WTF!!!!

Anyway so what do it do to fix it? Well that is easily answered. Go back to the basics. Focus on the small things. One meal at a time. Diet is by far my weakest point but it also my greatest potential for gains. I can’t change what happened friday or even earlier on today. But I can change my post workout and supper meals and tomorrow is a whole new day.

I did have a reasonable leg day. I worked my way up to 160kg on squats tonight and the weight just seemed to rise up all by itself. I have been put in a lot of work into making sure my squats are deep enough and I am almost happy on that front too. Leg press was light after going heavier on the squats. 2 quick fire sets of 15 with 250kg then 2 sets of 10 reps for single leg presses with 80kgs.

I ran out of time for calves except for 1 set of 30 reps with 35kg on seated calf raises. THis needs to be more of a focus of mine as I currently have stick calves.

 Like I said tomorrow is a new day and I am hungry!

My gym, my stupid, stupid gym which I love dearly is closed from lunchtime wed through to about the 5th so this week I can only get 3 training sessions in instead of 5-6. I think it will mean ditching abs for the week and doing Chest, Shoulders (without traps) and Triceps, Legs and calves, Back and biceps. There is no reason why I still can’t get some great sessions in and today was just that a great session. One of those days where no matter how much I put on the bar the weight still went up!

It started with Chest, warm up 5 reps of 70kg, then 90kg x 5, 95kg x 5, 95kg x 5, 97.5kg x 5, 100kg x 5 that made 5 work sets but it felt so good I had to throw on a little more so 102.5kg x 3, 105kg x 2. Seeing as I topped out at 98kg last week 105 felt really good.

Incline press next 3 sets of 70kg with 12 reps. Chest done on to shoulders.

Dumbell shoulder press 35pds x 5, 55pds x 5,5,8, 70pds x 2 (was a bit optimistic but 55 felt great and there are no dumbells between 55 and 70) 20 reps of 35pds.

Lateral raises 3 sets of 8 with 40pds, 12 reps of 25pds, 15 reps x 2 sets with 20pds.

Clean and Jerk practice, just trying to get technique going 50kg.

Tricep dips with 25kg plate 17, 13,11.

Cable rear delts 20kg each side 3 sets of 15.

Tricep pulldowns 45kgs. By now I am stuffed. Time for food.

Thankyou to you all for giving me some great advice in helping me with my deadlifts. I have been practicing keep my shoulders locked back all week.

Tonight I focused on nothing but the deads. I still have got some rounding but like you all said, you can never get rid of it completly. Probably the biggest thing that helped me was something Diver Dave said which was that I looked cramped and needed to bring the bar forward over the balls of my feet. This was the one thing that has helped me to enact a lot of the other suggestions. I have always tried to keep my head up (not always successfully) but rolling the eyes back as well really helped to keep this in check.

I also widened my grip and lowered my hips more which really helped to keep the scaps lock down although analysing the vids again I still have a lot of work to make this perfect.

Same goes for Jim’s suggestion of keeping the spine at the same angle as the shins. I tried to get this angle but again it is still a work in progress. I will admit I was sceptical of losing the straps. I really find they help me to concentrate on the lift as oppose to worry about grip. I did do some with and some without. I didn’t use them until I had worked up to 407pounds but it felt like I almost dropped the bar. One thing I do find though is that my form is better without them because I don’t have to worry about getting set up as much. Undecided yet which way to go? Might continue to do some with, some without but try to work up to more weight than without.

All in all, I am not completly satisfied but I am happy that I have enough technique to work on and not have to worry about snapping my back in two. I have put up some vids of tonight. One was my warmup set of 264 for reps. One is 407pds and one is dropping back to 352.

I mainly did single reps because that will help me with focussing on form. I think I will stick at 352 for a while until I get it nailed. I hope that this will eventually help me set new pr’s as I was stuck at lifting 467 (absolute 1 rep max) before I stopped to focus on the half marathon. Maybe that can be a new goal for the next 6 months to break that pr.