Tommy’s BodyBlog

I decided to spend the next 4 weeks focusing on my quads and shoulder, while trying a mild cut phase. I’ll add some cardio (20-30 minutes, 5 times a week), and slightly lower my caloric intake.
My new 5-6 day split goes as follow. The 6th day is optional, and will be performed unless I do another activity, such as beach volley ball, football, soccer, cycling, rollerblading, etc. or if I’m exhausted.

Day 1 - Quad heavy / Shoulder light: Deadlift 4×8, Smith Lunges 4×8, Leg Press 4×8, Leg Extension 4×8, Seated military press 4×12, Lat raise 4×12, Front Raise 4×12

Day 2 - Chest / Back: Incline BB press 4×10, DB press 4×10, Cable crossovers 2×10, Lat pulldown 4×10, T-Bar row 4×10, Straight arm pushdown 4×10

Day 3 - Hams / Abs: SLDL 4×10, Single leg curl 4×10, Hugeset Leg raise + Cable crunch + Oblique crunch

Day 4 - Quads light / Triceps: Front squat 4×12, Hack squat 4×12, Leg extensions toes in/out 4×12, Lying BB extension 4×10, Seated DB tricep extension 4×10, Cable pushdown 4×10

Day 5 - Shoulder heavy / Biceps: Seated military press 4×8, Lat raise 4×8, Front raise 4×8, Rear lat raise 4×8, Standing EZ curl 4×10, Incline Alt DB curl 4×10, Preacher BB curl 4×10

Day 6 - Back/Chest light OR rest: Pushups 4×25, Elastic band rows 4×12

Day 7 - Rest

So I’m test-driving this, to see if it’s not too much. I did day 1 yesterday, and it was quite intense. But that’s the point, right?

All comments are welcome.

Cheers,

T

Vacations are doing good, but no so much on the fitness level. I’m still eating clean, but not really training (I get 100 pushups every next day). But the boozing is pretty intense. I know, I know (with a southern accent), it ain’t good for ma’ belly, but hell, I’m far from overweight, and it’s only two weeks a year. Yes, I’m making excuses.
It’s just that I just don’t feel so bad watching the average american dude/gal: overweight, driving an SUV to go around the block, and breading and frying everything (damn, I didn’t think someone could have fried fish 4 days a week, that’s like downing a gallon of oil). What bad could a few Miller Lights do to me? Yes, I’m in denial.
Two days of vacations left now, and I can’t wait to ditch these rubber bands and push some iron. The only thing is, I gotta drive 13 hours to get back home. Then back to work, back to training, back to even more clean eating, and no more booze for a while.

And the cutting cycle. I guess I’m gonna try some very low carb (say, keto) diet. But I gotta plan this right, because carbs are part of my day to day. I would really enjoy a few tricks, if you feel like sharing.

After 13 hours of driving, we finally arrived at Virginia Beach. Training has been minimal, but at least I’ve been doing some 3 day split of Chest+Back, Arms+Shoulders, Legs. I bought resistance bands at a local shop after seeing a routine in my girlfriend’s Oxygen. Ok, it’s definitely not iron, but it’ll do for two weeks.

Clean eating is going well, although good choices and alternatives are definitely harder to find in the US than in Canada.

Well, that’s about it. 5PM, gotta nap before going back to the beach and having dinner at a local restaurant.

Cheers!

Long time no write. Since last time, I moved, I now go to a new gym, and I completely changed my program.

The move

I did take a 1 week full break from the gym. I moved from the city to the suburb. It’s calm, peaceful, and I was suspecting that my previous apartment mold problems was impacting my health. So it’s all good, except that I’m still in the painting/arranging/unpacking process, so I’m pretty busy.

Transportation isn’t too bad, 15 minutes more, every morning and evening. I gives me time to read M&F et Ironman Magazine. Ok, I know there’s a lot of detractors out there, but for my defense, I’m a reader, not a blind believer.

I also found a nice bio/eco/trendy grocery store close to my new home. They sell plenty of quality unprocessed healthy food, but it’s a little bit pricey. I still have to find a good butcher with lean ground horse.
The New Gym

The new gym isn’t as good as the old one. The old one was the size of the eastern warehouse of a national company. The new one is more like a bunker. They don’t have all the equipment I learned to love. That means no hack squat, no vertical press, no master blaster, no preacher curl station, no spinning bike… but they’ve got the essentials: dumbbells, barbells, cables, dips bars and a squat rack. Plus it’s 66% the price of the old gym. Anyway, I’ve got to get used to it, it’s the only decent one around.

The New Routine

The back specialization routine I was doing did good and I improved my V-taper and my traps a lot. But I nearly stopped progressing in the last 2 weeks, and I have to admit I was quite bored of it.

My new objective is to fix my upper chest, increase my delts and my quads size.

I go for the pump and the intensity. This means almost full range of movement but stopping short of articulation lock, 45 seconds pause, and drop sets or negative on the last set. I keep every rep slow (1/0/2 or 1/0.5/2). I also give a try to giant sets for arms for the next 2 weeks, to see how it goes. I aim for 10 reps, but might end up doing 8 or 12 depending on how my muscle reacts.

The routine goes as follow.

Monday: Chest and Back. Incline Press, Dumbell lightly-inclined Press, Dumbell Flat Flies, Deadlift, Lat pulldown, Seated rows, Dumbbell row.

Tuesday: Shoulders. Standing Barbell Press, Seated Dumbbell Press, Dumbbell Lat Raise, Barbell or Cable Front Raise, Dumbbell Rear Raise.

Thursday: Legs. Parallel Front Squat, Full Squat or Leg Press, Leg Extension, SLDL, Leg Curl, Standing Calf Raise, Seated Calf Raise.

Friday: Arms. Giant set of Overhead Barbell Extension, Skull Crushers, Tricep Pulldown, Upright Dips. Giant set of Incline Dumbbell Curl, Standing Barbell Curl, Seated Half Barbell Curl, Preacher Curl.

As for supplements, I stick to the same, as it seems to work well:

• Morning: 1 protein shake with oats, greens powder and a banana. Multivitamins.
• Pre-workout: 1 protein shake with oats, 1 caffeine pill.
• Post-workout: 4 scoops of Cyto-Gainer (contains glutamine and creatine, ~450cals, 80g of carbs, 40g of protein)
• Bedtime: 100g of CC and 1 scoop of protein with almonds, ZMA, glutamine.

Upcoming

I will run this new routine for the next 8 weeks and see how it goes. There will be a 2 week intermission for my vacation, at the end of July, where I’ll "go south", so to speak, and visit Virginia. I’ll try to stick to a bodyweight routine for maintenance, but it will most likely be hard on the willpower.
After that, I might reduce the intensity of my workouts and progressively incorporate cardio, for a little 2-4 week maintenance break, and pump up the intensity again. We’ll see…

I’ve been doing this healthy protein pudding once a week lately. I find it really good, and I felt like sharing. So here it is.

You will need (makes 2 servings) :

• A food processor
• 1 scoop (22g) of your favorite chocolate whey protein powder
• 8oz (227g) of 1% cottage cheese
• A handful (25g) of almonds
• 10ml to 20ml of water

Instructions:

• Put the almonds in the food processor, and reduce them into small bits.
• Add the whey and the cottage cheese, and process until there’s no more powder or cheese chunk, and that you have a thick mixture (typically 10 seconds with mine).
• Add the water and reprocess for a few seconds to lessen the thickness.
• Eat right away, or put it in the freezer for 30-45 minutes.

Contains (full recipe, 2 servings):

• With almonds
• 443 calories
• 60.4g of protein
• 12.6g of carbs
• 8.9g of sugar
• 3.0g of fiber
• 17.2g of fat
• 3.9g of saturated fat

• Without almonds
• 298 calories
• 55.1g of protein
• 7.7g of carbs
• 7.7g of sugar
• 0.0g of fiber
• 4.6g of fat
• 3.0g of saturated fat

I’m currently following Derek Charlebois’s back specialization program. So far so good, it allowed me to wind of my very high volume workouts, which really got me going, but after 4 weeks I was at a point I was stuck, mildly overtrained, and bored. So I took 1 week off (completely), and jumping in DC’s program.

First, the program is pretty intense, but well balanced for me. I train 4 to 5 days a week (I make the arms day optional, because I’m on a tight schedule and I often have time constraints), mostly in the morning, and I’m not overly tired at the end of the week.

My weight stayed pretty much the same, but I suspect that my BF% dropped as my abs definition improved. I cannot however confirm it, as my impedance BF% scale seems to be foobar (taken first thing in the morning, I went from 16% to 30% to 25% in 3 days, but only the lower third of my 6pack isn’t showing, so that can’t be right).
As for the eating, I’ve been switching my weight gainer (which I use post workout) from Revolution to Cytosport. Taste is great, but it doesn’t dissolves well at all compared to Revolution.

My typical training day starts with a breakfast shake: 1 scoop of whey, 2 scoops (70g) of oats (blended into powder), 1 cup of 1% milk, 1/2 cup of light vanilla flavored soy milk, 1 scoop if greens powder and a handful of frozen mixed berries (50g). Then I go train for 60-75 minutes, and have my post workout shake: 1 scoop of whey, 2 scoops of weight gainer, a handful of berries (50g) and water. An hour later, I’ll have two whole hard-boiled eggs and a bagel with low-fat cream cheese. Total: 1500 calories, 115g of proteins, 31g of fat, 187g of carbs (24g of sugar, 19g of fiber).

On off days, it’s pretty much the same, except that I replace the post workout shake with fresh fruits and 1% cottage cheese.

Ok, call me stupid, but forever I always had trouble "isolating" (so to speak) my lats when doing pulldown and rows.

Well two weeks ago, my brain unlocked a secret door during an heavy set of T-bar rows (heavy for me is 150 pounds x 6 reps x 5 sets, in case you’re curious). God! It feels so great to feel your whole upperback contract to lift the pounds. Plus, in two weeks in nearly increased my load by 15%, which was impossible before because my arms were failing me.

I hired a few personal trainers in the past, and all they were "lift the weight trying to snap your scapulae together". Shitty advice: that’s only half the trick. They should have said: "lift the weight trying to snap your scapulae together, as  if you had were prosthetic arms".

Another step toward cobra lats

Cheers,

T

And still training! Although this GVT workout is getting old — and the Workout Tracker here won’t let me track them easily… gotta do 2 x 5 sets. I’ve been gaining muscle, loosing fat… getting ready for the summer! Now I’m checking out for a routine rework. I’m probably going to switch on a 4 day body part split, 4×8, for a few weeks before lowering the reps and upping the weight again.

Easy  stuff for the 0-cuisine guy/girl

Stir fry
Ingredient A. Protein (poultry, fish, beef, pork)
Ingredient B: Broth (chicken, beef, vedgie)
Ingredient C. All the starchy/good vedgie you think of (brocolli, cornflower, beans, etc.)
Ingredient D (optional). A carbs source, such as brown rice or quinoa
Water and cornstarch
1. Brown the protein in a skillet with oil or PAM
2. Add the spices, vedgies, broth, and let it simmer
3. Prepare a cup of cold water mixed with 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Add gradually to the broth to thicken the sauce.

Serve with the carbs or alone.

Holiday party tonight. Lots of food I waited all year long to taste again (turkey, pork meatball stew), a little bit of alcohol (2 beers and a glass of wine). I’m particularily careful with alcohol as my yesterday’s training session was pretty intense and I want to recover asap.

On the training side, the bull dose no2/caffeine supps keeps me focused and productive as ever. 3 more weeks and I’ll reduce the intensity to deload. Still reading on the actual concept, so if you have good pointers for me, feel free to share!

Cheers, and happy holiday!